Wednesday - February 21, 2007

Is the French Constitution Sovereign?

 Or a Clash of Who Rules

This might be a minor case, but it does highlight the problem of the European Union.  Who is sovereign?  In France, there is such as case that is raising that very question.

France, which rejected the European Constitution in 2005, is debating whether the French constitution trumps decisions of the European Court of Justice.

The question was raised in a recent court case concerning whether EU law challenges French sovereignty, the EU Observer reports. France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, earlier this month refused to rule on whether the French steel company, Arcelor, was treated unfairly under the EU's carbon trading plan to reduce global warming.

Arcelor claims the emission trading scheme -- which requires steel firms to pay for CO2 emissions while exempting the plastics industry -- violates the equality principle of the French constitution. The French court sent the case to the European Court of Justice.

French President Jacques Chirac received open letters from 40 scholars defending the authority of the French constitution, and from 80 professors who said France was not threatened by EU law.

The Observer said Germany's constitutional court will decide if a revised EU constitution is compatible with the German constitution once the text is formalized.