Constitutional Reform (Federal Republic of Germany)
A fundamental change in the Basic Law is called constitutional reform . In addition to the military constitution reform and the emergency constitutional reform, there were three major attempts at a constitutional reform.
Reform of the constitution in reunified Germany
With German reunification , the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany also applied in the new federal states . The difficulty arising from the two previously very different legal systems as well as the political, economic and social structures made transitional arrangements necessary. This reform should give the countries more independence in order to comply with Article 5 of the Unification Treaty . In the competing legislation, the requirement regulation became a requirement regulation , whereby in the first step it looked as if the federal government would hand over all competences of the competing legislation to the states . But then, in the course of the negotiations, the existing articles (Art. 125a) were inserted into the draft, which means that existing laws remain with the Federation, unless the Bundestag deviates from them by law, which subsequently never happened. The only attempt under Article 125a was the federalization of the shop closing law , through a Federal Council initiative , which was rejected by the federal government. The Bundestag and Bundesrat set up a joint commission to examine constitutional questions. The work of the commission was completed towards the end of 1993 and the recommendations of the constitutional commission were largely approved in the summer of 1994 with a constitution-changing majority. The reform of the constitution in reunified Germany came into force in autumn 1994.
Reform of the constitution to reform federalism
This reform package was referred to the committees by the plenary session of the Bundestag on March 10, 2006. On June 30, 2006 the federalism reform was passed by the Bundestag. A week later, on July 7, 2006, the Federal Council voted, which was already positive in a trial vote on June 22, 2006.
Reform of the financial structure
The structural reform of the financial structure was planned as a small reform, one of which was to redefine the state financial equalization system . In 2001, Finance Minister Hans Eichel presented the first draft of a financial structural reform. In the following year, the EU Commission also called for structural reforms in the financial system and threatened the federal government with a written warning due to excessive deficits in public budgets. In 2009, a “debt rule” was included in the Basic Law, so that the finances of the Federal Republic are on a solid foundation according to a report by the Finance Minister in 2013.
Web links
- Unification Agreement (pdf)
- Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany - of 23 May 1949 ( Federal Law Gazette p. 1 )
- BT-Drs. 7/5924 of December 9, 1976: Final report of the Enquete Commission on the constitutional reform (PDF; 5.8 MB; 292 pages)
- BT-Drs. 12/6000 of November 5, 1993: Report of the Joint Constitutional Commission (PDF; 3.2 MB; 168 pages)
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- ↑ BGBl. 1994 I p. 3146 .
- ↑ Art. 125a on gesetze-im-internet.de, accessed on May 10, 2014.
- ↑ Basic Law - Constitution / Constitutional Reform on bpb.de, accessed on May 10, 2014
- ↑ State organization law - federalism reform onrecht-und-sprache.de, accessed on May 10, 2014 (PDF)
- ↑ BT printed matter 16/813; 16/814; BT plenary minutes 16/23
- ↑ Financial structural reform - Eichel presents plans on n-tv.de, accessed on May 10, 2014.
- ↑ EU Commission calls for decisive structural reforms in Germany in: Der Spiegel. dated February 8, 2002, accessed May 10, 2014.
- ↑ 3.1 Debt rule on bundesfinanzministerium.de, accessed on May 10, 2014.
- ↑ Federal finances on a solid foundation at bundesfinanzministerium.de, accessed on May 10, 2014.
