Germany has moved a step closer to ratifying the treaty that reshapes the European Union, with its President Horst Koehler saying through a spokesman Wednesday he has approved it but cannot sign it yet because of pending court cases, according to dpa. Berlin and other major EU members have pushed ahead with their own ratification work, despite the Lisbon Treaty being stalled by Ireland, where a referendum last summer rejected it. Koehler's Berlin office has its own legal team which reviews laws and treaties. His spokesman, Martin Kothe, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Koehler had "passed the treaty after close study." However he had not signed it, the act that would finalize German ratification. Koehler would wait for German federal-court rulings on cases brought by Germans who oppose the treaty. The verdicts are not generally expected till next year.
