Article 98 [German Unification]

The first sentence of Article 98 TFEU formed part, as Article 82 TEEC, of the original version of the EEC Treaty (1957). At that time, Article 82 TEEC was one of the several treaty provisions which took account of the division of Germany in order not to deepen the division of this nation through the European integration process. Although Germany was reunited in 1990, the provision was not repealed—or replaced—by the subsequent treaties. The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) changed the numbering of the article from 82 to 78. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (2004), the so-called Constitutional Treaty, which did not enter into force, retained the provision in Article III-243 and added a second sentence allowing its repeal five years after the entry into force of the Constitutional Treaty. The possibility of repealing the provision was adopted by the Lisbon Treaty which accordingly added a second sentence to the later Article 98 TFEU.