A busy week for the Bundestag and Bundesrat is coming to an end: in parliament, the members of parliament spent three days debating and voting on various projects in plenary; the Federal Council had 40 items on the agenda at its first meeting this year. Among other things, it was about faster procedures for major projects, the protection of whistleblowers, new rules for associations and debt collectors. An overview of the most important decisions:
Infrastructure: New wind turbines, high-voltage lines or LNG terminals – if such large-scale projects end up in court, the procedures should be able to be decided more quickly in the future. The law passed by the Bundestag on Friday morning provides that chambers or senates specializing in planning law can be formed at the responsible administrative courts. Specific deadlines are intended to prevent procedures for such projects from dragging on for years; In future, courts may also ignore a deficiency in the respective permit if it is obvious that it will be remedied soon. The MPs of the traffic light coalition and the left voted for the law, the CDU/CSU and AfD rejected it.
Incidentally, this legislative proposal has nothing to do with the current dispute in the coalition as to whether new motorway constructions should also be classified as being of “overriding public interest” so that they can be approved more quickly. So far, this has applied to renewable energies or liquefied natural gas terminals, for example. The FDP wants to extend this to new autobahns, the Greens strictly reject it – the most recent coalition committee could not solve the dispute either.
Whistleblower: The Federal Council has stopped the so-called whistleblower law. According to the will of the Bundestag, which decided in December, there should be better protection against reprisals for people who give information about abuses in authorities or companies. Larger companies, the federal government or the states should set up reporting offices for such information; anyone who contacts them should be able to remain anonymous. This did not find a majority in the Bundesrat, and several representatives of union-led state governments warned of abuse and too much bureaucracy. The project is now going to the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, which is supposed to try to find a compromise.
Societies: In the future, associations should generally be allowed to hold their general meetings virtually or in a hybrid form – even without this being explicitly anchored in their statutes. So far, this was an exception that applied because of the corona pandemic; according to the will of the Bundestag, it is now generally possible. The Federal Council still has to agree, although it is true that the initiative for the change in the law came from it. A hybrid meeting, to which individual participants are connected via video, for example, can therefore be easily convened in the future. If there is a desire for completely virtual meetings, the members must decide on this.
Collection company: In order to better protect consumers from dubious debt collectors, their control is centralized. So far, supervision has been spread across 38 courts, but from 2025 it will be brought together at the Federal Office of Justice. The Bundestag decided unanimously. Debt collection companies make their money by collecting outstanding debts from debtors.
tax investigator: In order to close tax loopholes for international corporations, the Bundestag approved an agreement with the USA on the exchange of tax data – without dissenting votes. This involves information on sales, profit or tax payments. Germany and the USA have been exchanging corresponding information for several years, and this is now to be automated and accelerated.
Bundestag Presidency: The AfD parliamentary group has once again failed in its attempt to appoint a vice-president of the Bundestag. Your candidate Stephan Brandner received only 78 yes votes in the election on Thursday. 592 MPs voted against the lawyer, eight MPs abstained. Since entering the Bundestag a good five years ago, the AfD has not been represented in the parliamentary presidency, as the only parliamentary group. All AfD candidates have so far failed to achieve the required majority.