Policy statements and reports

The Federal Government has the right to make policy statements, or present reports for the Bundestag's information in the Bundestag at any time, even if they are not included in the agenda (second sentence of Art. 43, paragraph (2) of the Basic Law). The above-mentioned period of three days therefore does not apply to such government policy statements. Government policy statements may be made by the Federal Chancellor or by any other member of the Federal Government.

As a rule, the Council of Elders is notified of government policy statements or they are in any case announced in time for them to be placed on the agenda and for the parliamentary groups to be able to prepare for the debate which nearly always follows. In the case of particularly important policy statements, when a new Federal Government takes office for example, a special sitting is often convened: the debate on the statement is then not held until the following day and sometimes even several days later.

The President of the Bundestag may, following an agreement in the Council of Elders, refer reports of the Federal Government and documents for the information of the Bundestag to a committee without placing them on the agenda. They are thus not included in the agenda until the committee report on them is available. When such a written communication of the Federal Government is debated, and whether it is debated in the plenary at all, thus depends on the political importance of such reports. In any case, interested members of the public have access to them as soon as they are published as Bundestag printed papers.

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