Rumours around UPC – Ratification on Hold?

Recent publications suggest that the Federal President’s Office has again agreed upon a call of the German Constitutional Court to postpone the execution of the German Ratification Act on the UPC Agreement until a decision on two constitutional complaints is rendered (e.g.)

We cannot imagine that this will actually happen again on such an informal basis as it was already the case during the first legislative procedure. As far as we have been informed, the President’s Office only agreed to put everything on hold until January 13 – in light of deliberations of the Constitutional Court on January 12. There has been no announcement yet about the outcome thereof. In any case, we have been told that the President will not tolerate another halt without a temporary order of the Constitutional Court. This would be appreciated as a further delay in ratification without such an explicit decision could hardly be justified in view of the constitutionally provided process of execution.

Thus, before putting the UPC on the deathbed, we should wait for the next days and a clear decision by the Constitutional Court. It should be a court order to temporary halt the ratification or the dismissal of the respective motions.