Only days after 26 European Union member nations agreed to sign up to the EU elites’ new fiscal pact, Germany has made plain who will dictate the content of any new treaty governing the eurozone countries.

As we pointed out some time back, on the eve of the signing of the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution in 2010, the German Constitutional Court rushed through a judgment guaranteeing its effective veto of any action by any EU member nation that did not agree with Germany’s own national agenda.

All other nations were caught short by this last-minute retention of power by Germany. The result is that, of all EU member nations, Germany alone retains the ability to hold back any EU action till it is satisfied the action meets its own requirements.

Specifically in relation to the eurozone, Reuters notes: “Germany’s parliament already holds greater sway in EU decisions since its Constitutional Court made it a requirement that the Bundestag be consulted on changes to the eurozone bailout fund” (December 12).

Realizing that such power is at the Bundestag’s disposal, German lawmakers from Angela Merkel’s coalition wrote a paper demanding that they have more say in agreements made with European partners. Reuters called this “a warning shot to the chancellor that all major deals to save the eurozone must go past them first.”

“Their demands, that government inform it of discussions from an early stage and provide documents to show why each decision must be made quickly, are significant as they could further tie Merkel’s hands during negotiations” (ibid).

With Europe’s crisis continuing to deepen weekly, any delay in concluding a treaty governing fiscal union worsens the situation. If this process that German legislators are holding out for is approved, Germany will be able to hold the eurozone nations to ransom till it negotiates treaty conditions that benefit Germany to the detriment of all others.

In fact, if the German parliament activates this power granted to it by its own Constitutional Court—a power that no other EU member possesses—and it delays action on a fiscal-union-enabling treaty, it will not just be Europe that Germany will be holding to ransom. It will be the whole world!

As one pundit put it: “Time—or the lack of it—is becoming more of a factor. Eurozone economies will most certainly be downgraded, and rightfully so. The effects of a European meltdown on global markets can’t be underestimated—if the EU can’t get its act together soon, the financial outlook for the rest of the world will continue to be quite bleak. The failure of any economy that encompasses nearly 700 million people will inevitably have dire consequences for both developed and developing economies alike” (Digital Journal, December 13; emphasis added).

The obvious pattern in the EU is there for all to see: What Germany wants, Germany gets!