Foreign Affairs Committee

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The Foreign Affairs Committee has been headed by Norbert Röttgen (CDU) since 2014 .

The Foreign Affairs Committee is a Bundestag committee that is prescribed by Article 45a of the Basic Law (referred to there as the Committee for Foreign Affairs ). It is one of the 22 standing committees of the German Bundestag and consists of 45  Bundestag members . The committee deals with the foreign relations of the Federal Republic of Germany, the activities of the Foreign Office and the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and accompanies and controls the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany . Norbert Röttgen ( CDU ) has been chairman of the committee since January 2014.

In the first legislative period from 1949 to 1953 the committee was called the Committee for the Occupation Statute and Foreign Affairs , and from June 3, 1953, the Committee for Foreign Affairs .

Importance and role

The Foreign Affairs Committee is one of the most important committees in the German Bundestag. Münzing and Pilz describe it as one of the "privileged committees". This status is justified not only by its anchoring in the Basic Law, but also by the highly sought-after memberships in the committee and its reputation.

The committee meets as a so-called "closed committee", which means that only committee members, government representatives and parliamentary group employees have access to its meetings .

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) commented on the role of the committee in the 19th legislative period (since 2017) as "emancipated", especially towards the Federal Government and the Foreign Office. This is expressed not only in significantly more of the committee's own initiatives, but also in more extensive questioning of government representatives and the introduction of public hearings . The FAZ cited a generation change among committee members as the main reasons for the emancipation, as well as the dynamics of a grand coalition . The often contradicting ( foreign policy ) positions of the coalition partners often lead to political positions being delayed or not taken, so that the committee takes on a stronger role in German foreign policy.

Members of the 19th electoral term

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the 19th legislative period has 45 members, 16 of whom are from the CDU / CSU parliamentary group , ten from the SPD , six from the AfD , five are sent by the FDP , and four each from Die Linke and Bündnis 90 / Die Greens .

Ordinary members

CDU / CSU SPD AfD FDP The left Alliance 90 / The Greens

Deputy members

CDU / CSU SPD AfD FDP The left Alliance 90 / The Greens

Committee Chair

Deputy Committee Chair

literature

  • Volker Pilz: The Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag and Parliament's participation in foreign and international politics . Dissertation, University of Speyer . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12358-2 ( Uni Speyer ).
  • Wolfgang Hölscher, Joachim Wintzer: The Foreign Committee of the German Bundestag. Meeting minutes 1972–1976 . Introduced by Joachim Wintzer, with the assistance of Benedikt Wintgens, Thomas Herzog. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-7700-5301-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ bundestag.de (January 15, 2014)
  2. ^ Parliamentary archive of the German Bundestag: overview of the holdings, documentation and collections . Berlin 2014, p. 10.
  3. ↑ Ekkehard Münzing, Volker Pilz: Tasks, organization and working method of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag - with special consideration of the 12th and 13th electoral term . In: Heinrich Oberreuter, Uwe Kranenpohl, Martin Sebaldt (eds.): The German Bundestag in Transition . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 978-3-531-13684-4 , p. 63 .
  4. ↑ Johannes Leithäuser: Bundestag with new self-confidence in foreign policy. In: FAZ.net. December 25, 2019, accessed December 28, 2019 .