Federalism Commission

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Federalism commissions have existed three times in West German history :

  • The Independent Federalism Commission existed from 1991 to 1992;
  • the commission of the Bundestag and Bundesrat to modernize the federal system from 2003 to 2004 (see also: federalism reform );
  • the constituted on 8 March 2007. Commission of the Bundestag and Bundesrat of the Federal-State financial relations with the modernization (see also federalism reform ).

The tasks differed from each other.

Independent Federalism Commission (1991–1992)

By resolution of June 20, 1991, the German Bundestag asked the President of the Bundestag to appoint a commission made up of representatives from all constitutional organs of the highest federal authorities and from other independent personalities. This commission has been given the task of “developing proposals for the distribution of national and international institutions, which should also serve to strengthen federalism in Germany by taking account of the new federal states in particular, with the aim of having federal institutions in each of the new federal states find their location. Existing federal institutions in Berlin are also available for this. "

This commission, composed equally of members of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, with a total of 31 members, was supposed to make proposals as to which federal institutions should be relocated to the new federal states . Chairman was Dr. Bernhard Vogel .

On May 27, 1992, the commission presented its recommendations, which were presented to the Bundestag by the Council of Elders . A total of 16 authorities were to be relocated to the new federal states.

Among other things, as a result of the report

New federal institutions should be located in the eastern German states.

The Bundestag took note of the Commission's proposals on June 26, 1992 and instructed the Commission to monitor the implementation of the resolutions until an approximately balanced distribution of federal institutions across all Länder is achieved (Plenary Proposal 12/100 of June 26 1992).

Federalism Commission I (2003-2004)

On October 16, 2003, at the request of the parliamentary groups of the SPD, CDU / CSU, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and FDP (printed matter 15/1685), the Bundestag decided to set up a joint commission from the Bundestag and Bundesrat to modernize the federal system. The aim of the commission was to reform the division of tasks between the federal and state governments. The background to this is the complex jurisdiction in German legislation ; This distribution of competencies means that around 60% of all federal laws require the approval of the Bundesrat. The Federalism Commission should develop proposals as to how competencies can be redistributed between the federal government and the federal states in order to enable political decisions to be made faster and more efficiently and to structure political responsibilities at federal and state level more clearly.

assignment

In particular, the Commission aims to

  • the assignment of legislative competences to the federal and state levels,
  • the competences and rights of participation of the states in federal legislation and
  • the financial relations (especially joint tasks and mixed financing) between the federal government and the federal states

to verify.

Members and Representatives

Eligible to vote

The commission had 32 members with voting rights, 16 members of the Bundestag each (8 SPD MPs, 6 CDU , 1 Greens , 1 FDP ) and 16 members of the Federal Council (Prime Minister and Governing Mayor).

The chairmen of the commission were Edmund Stoiber , Prime Minister of the Free State of Bavaria (and CSU chairman) as representative of the state side, and Franz Müntefering , head of the SPD parliamentary group (and federal chairman of the SPD ) as representative of the federal government. The decision to appoint two chairmen with equal rights was made in order to emphasize the "balance of both benches".

Not entitled to vote

Advisory members of the Federal Government were Brigitte Zypries ( Ministry of Justice ), Hans Eichel ( Finance ), Renate Künast ( consumer affairs ) and Frank-Walter Steinmeier ( Head of the Federal Chancellery ). In addition, the commission includes 6 representatives from the state parliaments and 3 members of the municipal umbrella organizations, as well as 12 university lecturers as experts.

course

The constituent meeting of the body was on November 7, 2003. The Federalism Commission then met regularly and was guided by the meetings of the Federal Council (at which the members from the federal states were mostly in Berlin anyway). There were 11 meetings in total. Individual aspects were discussed in 7 project and 2 working groups.

The schedule stipulated that the Commission would present its results on December 17, 2004. If the commission had come to the conclusion that changes in the Basic Law were necessary in order to modernize the federal system , it would have had the task of submitting specific proposals.

A few weeks before this date, participants in the commission expressed themselves critically about the chances of success, since the necessary majorities to amend the constitution (2/3) are not certain; Among other things, the area of ​​university policy proves to be highly problematic.

On December 17, 2004 it was announced that the talks had failed. Education policy had proven to be the main conflict . Specifically, the formulation of the joint task “ educational planning ” according to Art. 91b GG proved to be incompatible. While the state side insisted on full competence in the field of education and therefore on deleting the wording, the federal representatives argued that against the background of the constitutionally anchored goal of "equivalence of living conditions", this opportunity to participate should be retained. However, it is sometimes also claimed that the reason for the failure was the “political system itself”. The politicians accused each other of being responsible for the failure. Because of the urgency of the restructuring of federalism , there was consternation everywhere. However, a mediation meeting with the Federal President in January 2005 was unsuccessful.

The issue was taken up again in the coalition talks after the 2005 Bundestag election . After further rounds of meetings in 2006, the federal government, the federal states and the coalition parties agreed on a bill for reforming federalism . The Bundestag and Bundesrat approved the most extensive amendment to date to the Basic Law with the necessary two-thirds majority. On September 1st, 2006 the law came into force. The reform of the state financial constitution was initially excluded and is only to be decided in a further step.

Federalism Commission II (2007-2009)

On December 15, 2006, at the request of the parliamentary groups of the CDU / CSU, SPD and FDP (in Drs 16/3885), the Bundestag and Bundesrat decided (Plenary Proposal 16/74) to set up a joint commission to modernize federal-state financial relations. The presidents of the Bundestag and Bundesrat constituted the commission on March 8, 2007. The Commission completed its work on March 5, 2009 with the submission of reform proposals. The Commission's proposals were implemented with the law amending the Basic Law (Articles 91c, 91d, 104b, 109, 109a, 115, 143d) of July 29, 2009 and the law accompanying the second reform of federalism of August 10, 2009.

assignment

The reorganization of federal-state financial relations deals with three issues from the area of ​​the financial constitution :

Members

The Federalism Commission II had 32 voting members, 16 members of the Bundestag each (6 SPD MPs, 6 CDU , 2 FDP , 1 Greens , 1 Die Linke ) and 16 members of the Federal Council (Prime Minister and Governing Mayor). The chairmen are Dr. Peter Struck for the Bundestag and the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Günther Oettinger for the Bundesrat. The commission also includes four representatives of the state parliaments with the right to propose and speak (but not entitled to vote) and three representatives from the central municipal associations .

The commission consisted of 36 men and 3 women .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Printed matter 12/2853 of the German Bundestag (12th electoral term), accessed on February 12, 2017

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