Germany's highest court is to decide upon a complaint brought by a German MP against the EU's latest treaty.

Peter Gauweiler, who hails from the Christian Social Union (CSU) - part of the governing coalition, wants the country's constitutional court to decide on the legality of the Lisbon Treaty, currently undergoing ratification across the 27-member European Union.
"This treaty weakens democracy in European politics, especially national parliaments' right to have a say," Mr Gauweiler's lawyer told this week's edition of news magazine Focus.

The decision to bring a case to the court may mean that Germany does not approve the treaty in time for it to enter into force by the 1 January 2009 deadline agreed by EU leaders, with full ratification by all member states needed to bring the document into being.
The German parliament is due to ratify the treaty in May and is likely to approve it, however the final act of ratification requires the country's president, Horst Kohler, to sign off the document.

Mr Kohler may decide to wait for the court to reach a decision before putting his stamp under the treaty.
Formally, the president may decide to go ahead before the court has reached a verdict but this would be a politically difficult decision to take.
A similar scenario took place in Germany during the ratification of the EU constitution - the current treaty's similar-looking predecessor - but the process was stopped when French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in referendums, effectively shelving the document.

The Irish vote
Meanwhile, another country in the ratification process that is set to provide for plenty of discussion is Ireland, the only member state to have a referendum.
Likely to take place on 5 June, the run-up to the small country's vote is to come under even more scrutiny since a bid to have a referendum in the UK was last week rejected by the House of Commons.
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