Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that the Lisbon Treaty is in conformity with the German Constitution, and has cleared the act of parliament ratifying the treaty.
Europe Editor Sean Whelan takes a closer look at the ruling of Germany’s top court - Read.
However it has suspended the formal completion of ratification until a separate German law on the operation of the Lisbon Treaty is amended to set out the rights of the German parliament in the process of making EU laws and amending the treaties.
This is expected to be passed in early September.
Under the Lisbon Treaty national parliaments are due to gain additional powers over EU lawmaking.
The Treaty would also allow the European Council (the heads of state or government) to amend parts of the treaty by unanimous agreement.
To balance this power, the German court is insisting that the rights of the German parliament to block the government from taking actions at EU level must be spelled out in German legislation.
Presiding judge Andreas Vosskuhle said: 'To sum up, the basic law says 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty but demands a strengthening of parliamentary responsibilities at the national level.'
The changes are of a relatively simple technical nature, and the German parliament is due to reconvene on 26 August for a first reading on the new bill. A second and final reading is scheduled for 8 September.
This would allow German President Horst Kohler to sign the ratification instrument in September, presumably before the German general election on 27 September.
The treaty must be ratified by all 27 member states before it can come into force.
German ratification would leave three states which have not completed the ratification procedure: Ireland - which is due to hold another referendum on the Treaty in early October - Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Czech and Polish parliaments have voted to ratify the treaty, but their Presidents are refusing to sign the ratification instruments until after the Irish referendum.
