Because the so-called “fiscal pact” amendment that would strength the E.U.’s enforcement of state government deficits and debts involves a shift of more state sovereignty to the E.U. for the states that ratify the informal amendment, the ratification in Germany requires a two-thirds majority in both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The latter body represents the German regions, or Länder, which in Texas or California would be counties. Generally speaking, the process of European integration has involved a succession of shifts of governmental sovereignty both from county and state governments to the E.U. itself as a federal government that includes an executive branch, a parliament, a council or upper chamber, and a supreme court that has a supremacy clause.
The full essay is at "Essays on the E.U. Political Economy," available at Amazon.
