Status: 04/30/2022 03:15 a.m
Armaments projects of the Bundeswehr are subject to strict parliamentary control. It takes a lot of time. It could also go faster. However, acceleration would also have disadvantages.
EP14 – that’s the technical jargon for the Federal Republic’s defense budget. It is the individual plan 14 of the federal budget. And this is passed by the Bundestag. Specialist politicians in the budget committee also scrutinize individual armaments projects in the extensive and complex defense budget.
This is ensured by the “25 million euro bill”, introduced in 1981 in the days of the Deutschmark as the “50 million mark bill” – by a fundamental decision of the committee itself.
“Unwritten law”
Although the bill has no legal basis, the government, i.e. the Ministry of Defense, delivers it to the MPs anyway. “This bill was always practice and a kind of unwritten law,” says Bettina Hagedorn from the SPD. “And at least for the past 20 years, since I’ve sat on the budget committee, all governments have always adhered to it.”
The officials in the procurement office of the Bundeswehr in Koblenz formulate these templates for the parliamentarians – a job that often takes months.
Bundeswehr administration for higher limit
According to the Procurement Office, the bill was also at issue when Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht visited the authority in Koblenz for the first time in January: “The project managers responsible also suggested reviewing the value limit for parliamentary bills as a way of speeding up the procurement process.”
According to the ministry, however, there are no plans to initiate this proposal. Probably also because this does not meet with much approval in the Bundestag. “Increasing the total of these bills or even wanting to abolish them would be a disregard for Parliament and would make it almost impossible for MPs to seriously monitor defense spending,” says deputy committee chair Hagedorn.
“Not adjusted to inflation in 40 years”
But the idea of making procurement faster through less bureaucracy is old and doesn’t just come from the administration: “Increasing the limit would speed up procurement even more,” says Frank Sauer from the Bundeswehr University. “But you also have to say clearly that the background to this limit is the fight against corruption. And of course it also makes sense for Parliament to have a say in these things. But you could possibly make adjustments.”
The industry sees it that way too. “The template has not been adapted to inflation in 40 years. A significant increase would reduce bureaucracy and speed up processes,” tweeted Matthias Wachter from the Federation of German Industries. But even if the limit were doubled, according to Sauer, most projects would still have to go through the budget committee.
“In practice, the procedure often leads to delays and is sometimes misused to influence procurement procedures,” writes the retired General Ulf von Krause in an essay. And refers to research by “Spiegel” from 2009. Parliamentarians are said to have delayed projects in favor of a German armaments company.
Bundestag wants legal basis
The Bundestag now wants to enshrine the 25 million euro bill in law for the planned special fund. That’s the way it is in the draft law. Deputy Hagedorn provides the reason: “The special fund is also an enormous vote of confidence from Parliament for the Ministry of Defence.”
Your committee chairman, Helge Braun from the CDU, makes another suggestion to speed things up: “In the case of time-critical proposals for aid to Ukraine, I, as chairman of the budget committee, am always ready to convene special meetings, even at short notice.” It seems as if the “25 million euro template” is currently not being turned.