 The opinion concludes that the Treaty does not create a European federal state (which would invalidate the Basic Law and require a referendum in Germany), that the structural democratic deficit of the EU institutions cannot be resolved in an association of sovereign national states (since it would break the principle of the equality of states), and that the substance of German national sovereignty is protected.While the Court considered the Treaty (and the German statute incorporating it into German Law and authorising the Treaty's ratification) compatible with the German Basic Law, it also found that an accompanying statute, that dealt with the German Parliament's powers of oversight over the votes cast by the representatives of the German Government within the EU's institutions granted insufficient powers to the German Parliament, in a manner incompatible with the Basic Law, so that Germany's ratification of the Treaty was to be stayed until the statute in question was amended so as to include provision recognising that in certain cases the German representative was only to cast a vote once the authorisation of the German Parliament was obtained.In addition, the judges reserved the right to overrule judgments by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) within Germany, if they should be judged in violation of the Basic Law.