German Parliament Debates Change to Constitution, and Problems With the EU’s Military Plans
Can Germany change its constitution? Germany’s parliament begins debating the changes to its constitution that will enable hundreds of billions of dollars of more military spending today. It’s an uphill task. They need a two-thirds majority in parliament to get it through. That will be much easier with the outgoing parliament than the next one, so they’re trying to rush it through before parliament is dissolved.
However, the Greens party is against it, denying the majority. And there’s a new hiccup. Germany’s upper house, made up of representatives from Germany’s states, must also approve. The junior partner of Bavaria’s state government is also against the changes. By convention Bavaria would then vote against it.
There are problems with the EU’s military plans too. The Netherlands announced it will vote against the defense spending plans. It won’t stop the current plans, but a bigger European military package would require unanimous approval. The Dutch vote signals a limit to what the EU can accomplish in its current form.
These challenges show that the EU’s military transformation require more changes. Watch for Germany to quickly shift to a strongman government without all these inconvenient checks on government power. The EU’s challenges have leaders thinking seriously about moving forward with a slimmed down group of nations. Doing this “has been a sort of pseudo-taboo in the EU debate for quite some time,” wrote EuroIntelligence. “But given the urgency of the situation, and the practical and political obstacles, we do not think there is any other option.”
Europe’s urgency to rearm is pushing a wide range of changes to the EU that we’ve forecast for years.
