This is the first comprehensive analysis of the Court’s recent opinion. This month’s issue covers a wide range of topics related to the Kosovo case, including the role of the European Union.

The German Law Journal provides for a free download of the papers.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has just visited the Western Balkans, where he called the independence and territorial integrity of Kosovo a “reality”.

The minister kicked off what will become a foreign policy debate touching on the very foundations of Germany’s security identy.

Guttenberg’s plans include a de facto end to mandatory conscription. His suggestions are controversial even within his own camp.

Spiegel Online International’s “The World from Berlin” media review has compiled commentary on the issue in Germany’s major newspapers: “Germany Weighs the Elimination of Conscription” (24 August 2010).

Guttenberg’s reform plans are “regarded as one of the most radical military shake-ups since the end of the Cold War”, writes Judy Dempsey: “Germany Plans Major Restructuring of Military” (International Herald Tribune, 23 August 2010).

The berlinbrief will follow up soon with the reactions of the political parties.

The need for budget cuts has now added fresh thoughts to the debate. Minister of Defense zu Guttenberg has shown openness to discuss Germany’s concept of compulsory military service. An army of professional soldiers would mean a major turn in the country’s political culture, where many believe an army needs to be rooted in society. Chancellor Merkel is reportedly not happy with her minister’s push.

But there are also other suggestions on the table, e.g. cutting down the number of soldiers by half, which has been discussed by the cabinet before the summer break.

The future of the Bundeswehr will be a major policy issue in the second half of 2010, when a report is expected to be published by zu Guttenberg’s ministry with proposals to reform both command and administrative structures.

If the minister wants to turn the armed forces into an army of professionals, he will need a long breath. Heated debates are to be expected later this year.

Spiegel International has published a couple of articles on the issue. The first one is a particularly insightful read, as it explains the background of German political culture and its armed forces:

“Dodging the Draft: Conscription Debate Divides German Conservatives.” (Spiegel Online International, 29 July 2010).

“In Retreat: German Military Reform Could Halve Ground Forces.” (Spiegel Online International, 9 August 2010).

Also, read Judy Dempsey in the International Herald Tribune (18 August 2010).

The berlinbrief wrote about the case on 20 February 2010.

The man known as Uri Brodsky was arrested in Poland in June under a German arrest warrant. Brodsky was then handed over to the German authorities. However, a court in Cologne, where the passport he used in the Dubai killing was issued, set him free on bail on Friday.

The court could only charge him for forgery, as spying against Germany is not a crime under Polish law.

Compared to reactions by the then UK government and the coverage the incident got in the UK, the case did not create much publicity in Germany.

Take a look at the International Herald Tribune and Haaretz.

Cameron implicitly criticized his conservative colleagues on the continent, Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy, who have adopted a cautious approach despite accession negotiations already being under way for a while now.

Merkel has stated on numerous occasions that while “pacta sunt servanda” – i.e. Germany supports the accession negotiations – she believes a “privileged partnership” with the EU would be a more suitable format for Turkey.

A prominent voice of Merkel’s CDU party, however, is speaking out energetically for Turkish accession now:

Ruprecht Polenz, a respected foreign policy expert and the Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, has published a book entitled “Better for both: Turkey belongs in the EU”.

Published by Körber Foundation, whose Berlin office is very active on foreign policy issues of the wider Middle East, the book is a strong plea against the model of a privileged partnership that Chancellor Merkel has been adovacting.

Qantara.de spoke to Ruprecht Polenz. Read the interview here.

Has Germany fallen out of love with the European Union?

This is a question increasingly raised in Western capitals. Funny enough, Berlin seems to be immune to this debate. Over the last months, Germany’s “Europapolitik” was stuck in navel-gazing, either ignoring or not understanding the questions and criticism directed to the Merkel government from abroad.

A couple of new papers written by both German and European analysts have picked up the issue, aiming at explaining the “neue deutsche Europapolitik”.

Wolfgang Proissl, a journalist with Financial Times Deutschland who is currently a visiting fellow at the Brussels based think tank Bruegel, has written an excellent essay on Germany’s past, present and future role in Europe:

“Why Germany Fell out of Love with Europe”, Bruegel essays and lectures, Brussels, 1 July 2010.

Jacques Delors’ Paris based think tank “Notre Europe” has just published a compilation of papers of both German and European analysts, discussing “Where is Germany Heading?”:

“Where is Germany Heading?” (directed by Renaud Dehousse and Elvire Fabry), Notre Europe Studies and Research 79, Paris 2010.

How will the European Unon and its members accomodate the “new” Germany?

And he proved a sense of humour when the new British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Foreign Secretary William Hague came on their first visit to Berlin this week.

In the press conference following the meeting on 10 June 2010, the LibDem leader Nick Clegg surprised journalists with his fluent German, raving about the “Berliner Luft” (”Berlin air”).

“I’d like the English journalists to know … his German is excellent”, Foreign Minister Westerwelle commented, the Guardian newspaper reported, perhaps alluding to the generally poor language abilities of English journalists, and to Coomarasamy insisting on framing his questions in English in the press conference in Berlin last year.

Westerwelle welcomed the UK visitors as “closest friends” and “fabulous partners”. Prime Minister David Cameron had already visited Chancellor Merkel on one of his first visits abroad in May 2010.

However, with tough decisions looming in order to help the EU countries deal with the economic and financial crisis and the turmoil in the eurozone, there is a lot of potential for frictions between Berlin and London. Even though the UK is not a member of the eurozone, the reform measures are likely to have an impact in the UK too.

The new coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in London has already pointed out clearly that it will not accept a stronger role of the European Union in the surveillance of national budgets. Also, restricting the room for maneouver of hedge funds is a point of controversy.

William Hague has made the British position clear in one of his first major speeches. His German partners are perhaps not amused.

Read the address of Foreign Secretary Hague to the House of Commons on 3 June 2010.

Supported by an experienced and influential team, Van Rompuy has left his marks in a number of major policy issues in his first months in office; and he used the fact that he is the first person to occupy and shape the new position to his favour.

In the economic crisis that brought Greece into turmoil and with it the euro currency, Van Rompuy has developed into a major player.

Without making much noise, he is the one pulling the strings to hammer out reforms aimed at strengthening the governance of the eurozone. The former Belgian prime minister is heading a “task force” that is expected to put initial suggestions to the European Heads of State and Government at their summit in Brussels next week (17-18 June 2010).

This week, Van Rompuy has been on a tour d’Europe to assess the temperatures in Europe’s capitals. No doubt that the support of Germany, the largest economy in the European Union and the eurozone, is crucial to any reform changing the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.

However, Berlin has been rather isolated so far with its suggestions to Europe’s ministers of finance. (Take a look at the berlinbrief, 24 May 2010)

Will Van Rompuy manage to facilitate an agreement?

Here are Van Rompuy’s official remarks after the meeting with Chancellor Merkel, in which he outlines the reform priorities for the weeks and months to come:

“This is my second visit to Berlin as President of the European Council. Since our first meeting mid January, the European Union has experienced an unprecedented economic and financial crisis.

These last few months we have been working to find solutions. In the current situation I am convinced that there is no alternative to the measures we have taken. They are in the interest of the eurozone and of each of  the members of the eurozone.

Ich weiß, dass die Diskussionen hier in Deutschland zu all diesen Fragen sehr intensiv waren, und ich möchte deshalb der Bundeskanzlerin sehr herzlich dafür danken, dass sie den Weg für die gefundene Lösung gebahnt hat.

(Van Rompuy speaking German: I KNOW THAT THERE HAVE BEEN VERY INTENSE DISCUSSIONS IN GERMANY ON ALL THESE ISSUES AND I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE CHANCELLOR VERY MUCH FOR PAVING THE WAY TO THIS WAY OUT OF THE CRISIS.)

Today, we focussed on the lessons we should  learn from this crisis. Both in terms of economic policy and in terms of better governance within the European Union.

We first and foremost have to strengthen economic growth and competitiveness in order to bring the European economy back on track. The European Council has mandated me to chair a Task Force on Economic Governance.

I will give a first progress report on the first two meetings of the Task Force to the European Council next week and will provide a final report including recommendations in October.

We discussed the main conclusions of the Task Force up to now and I understand that the Chancellor shares the principal directions to strengthen  budgetary discipline through the Stability Pact and to reduce the divergences in competitiveness between the Member States.

Regarding the Stability and Growth Pact let me mention four issues:

We will strengthen preventive action to avoid countries  accumulating excessive deficits. We will be tougher in correcting deficits with more  rules-based and semi-automatic sanctions.

We will take more account  of the public  debt level. We want independence of national statistical offices for data provision, free from political influence

We have to tackle imbalances in competitiveness. In this context we need to improve the surveillance of competitiveness of  individual Member States. Our objective should be to adopt indicators for all 27 and a specific monitoring  instrument for Euro-Members. We need to detect potential bubbles – for instance in the housing market – earlier on and to react appropriately.

Finally, we have intensively discussed how to improve economic governance. Let me first state that we should not over-emphasize this debate. As a Belgian you can expect me to have a very pragmatic approach on this matter. ‘Economic governance’ is not a separate chapter; it is linked to the discussions on the Stability and Growth Pact or competitiveness. We need more specific governance in those areas from the Commission and the Council.

However, the latest crisis has shown once again the clear need for more global coordination, between the different players.

In recent months, I convened two separate meetings of the Eurozone Heads of State or Government, to deal with specific questions related to the Euro-area.  – Why? Euro-area Member States share the same currency which in some cases implies a higher level of economic coordination. However, the non-euro countries are economically and financially closely linked to the Eurozone. Most of these countries are obliged to join the euro once they fulfil the criteria.

This is why I took great care to maintain the coherence with the Union of 27 when I convened the Eurozone Summit of March in the margins of the European Council and in May. I think we can continue this pragmatic way of working. We do not need new institutions to meet our goals. We need more effectiveness.

In short, we need more orthodox and convergent budgetary and economic policies and the instruments on the European level to give the necessary orientations and guidance. We will discuss all this in the European Council next week.  In this period of crisis, we need unity and coherence.”

Follow the press conference of Merkel and van Rompuy in Berlin on the EU Council’s website.

On 18 May 2010, a new type of “governmental” consultation mechanism between the Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian Authority was launched in Berlin.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad chaired the first session of a so-called “German-Palestinian Steering Committee” that was attended by their Interior, Economics, Development and Education Ministers.

In the course of the meeting the delegations agreed on a number of measures to intensify Germany’s support for the building of Palestinian state structures in the West Bank.

The meeting also had a clear political message: Germany is willing to put its relations with the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank on a qualitatively new footing. The steering committee will operate just under the level of the format applied with the government of Israel (”Joint governmental consultations”).

However, it clearly resembles the meetings with Israel that have been taking place on a regular basis and in the presence of the respective heads of government since 2008.

This is how the Foreign Office describes its motivation for the initiative.

This is the article that Foreign Minister Westerwelle published in Al Quds newspaper on the day of the meeting in Berlin.

On Monday, 31 May 2010, German President Horst Köhler resigned in a surprise move over comments he had made in a radio interview on the role of the German military. Having given an interview to a journalist from Deutschlandfunk on a plane taking the President to a visit of the German troops in Afghanistan, Horst Köhler was criticized for seemingly suggesting that the German armed forces should be used to defend Germany’s commercial interests abroad.

Köhler said his remarks were misunderstood and that he certainly did not mean Afghanistan, but was speaking about the support of anti-piracy missions to secure German trade interests, for example. In his resignation speech in Berlin on Monday, Köhler said he was stepping down because of a lack of respect for the dignity of his office as President.

Köhler’s resignation was criticized widely by the media, politicians and the Germans. The resignation is also putting more domestic pressure on Chancellor Merkel.

Take a look at the comments in the German and international media:

“German President Quits Over Remarks on Military” (Judy Dempsey in the International Herald Tribune, 31 May 2010).

“Horst Köhler ‘Has Acted with Extreme Negligence’” (The World from Berlin, Review of the leading German newspapers delivered by Spiegel Online International, 1 June 2010).

“Merkel’s Search for New German President Full of Potential Pitfalls” (Spiegel Online International, 1 June 2010).

“Angela Merkel is Flying Completely Blind” (The World from Berlin, Review of the leading German newspapers delivered by Spiegel Online International, 2 June 2010).

“Merkel’s Favourite for German Presidency Loses Out” (Judy Dempsey in the International Herald Tribune, 3 June 2010).

“A Sheep in Wulff’s Clothing: Merkels Candidate for German President” (Spiegel Online International, 4 June 2010).