AAt the beginning of January, Berlin's EU ambassador Michael Clauss had had enough. He reached for the keys and wrote a sweet letter to the capital. Re: “German Vote” – the Federal Government’s constant “yes, no, but, maybe” to legislative proposals from the EU Commission, which usually ends in a helpless but often fatal abstention in the decisive vote. Abstentions actually count as a no when voting.
Germany is losing influence and credibility in Brussels “because we change our attitude shortly before dossiers are finalized, suddenly demand special regulations or send contradictory signals.” The result in the best case: “shaking of the head”. What's more: “We are losing our reputation in European politics, which is damaging our position in Brussels far beyond the respective dossier.”
Shaking your head turns into indignation
That was a year ago. Since then everything has been true to the old Hildegard Knef song “From now on it went downhill”. A few weeks after the letter, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) blocked the decision to ban combustion engines at the last minute, even though his ministry had agreed to the text negotiated by the European Parliament and EU states months earlier. Germany must abstain. The necessary majority in the Council of Ministers is overturned.
Shaking of the head turns into outrage at the “wissing move”. It takes weeks before the FDP ministers in the government give in after the EU Commission made concessions. In the end, Germany can vote yes.
By then, at the latest, the term “German Vote” had entered the vocabulary of Berlin politics and the public. However, neither the anger over the ban on combustion engines nor the letter from the EU ambassador seems to have left any particular impression. Berlin repeatedly slows down negotiations because the traffic light coalition cannot commit to a position. The traffic light keeps flickering between yellow and green because both parties do not agree.
The list of legislative proposals in which the “German vote” came or was only averted late is long: asylum compromise, cash limit, glyphosate, wage transparency, Euro 7 emissions limits, artificial intelligence. If at all, the German position is often only shortly before the final vote. As with the law on artificial intelligence (“AI Act”), which the FDP only approved in the middle of this week.
There is no way around the next abstention
She had – “shortly before the dossier was completed” – raised concerns about the trilogue agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers in December. The negotiators wrestled with each other for three days and two nights before the result was finalized. The relief in Berlin was all the greater when the FDP finally gave in. Germany was spared the embarrassment of being the only country to abstain from the EU ambassadors' vote on Friday.
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