Example of a report

Report by the Members of the German Bundestag Ernst Bahr, Hartmut Koschyk, Cem Özdemir, Dr Max Stadler and Ulla Jelpke

1. General observations

During its 208th sitting on 13 December 2001, the German Bundestag referred the Federal Government's bill, printed paper 14/7758, to the Committee on Internal Affairs as the committee responsible, and to the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Sports Committee, the Committee on Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture and the Committee on Tourism as committees asked for an opinion. During the 212th sitting of the German Bundestag on 24 January 2002, the bill was subsequently also referred to the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as a committee asked for an opinion.
During its 208th sitting on 13 December 2001, the German Bundestag referred the Bundesrat's bill, printed paper 14/763, to the Committee on Internal Affairs as the committee responsible, and to the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture and the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as committees asked for an opinion.

2. Votes of the committees asked for an opinion

During its 125th meeting on 24 April 2002, the Committee on Legal Affairs recommended that the Government bill, printed paper 14/7758, be adopted as amended by the coalition parliamentary groups. The SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups voted in favour, as did the majority of the members of the CDU/CSU and FDP parliamentary groups. The PDS parliamentary group was not present. Additionally, the Committee on Legal Affairs recommended unanimously, in the absence of the PDS parliamentary group, that the Bundesrat bill, printed paper 14/763, be rejected.
During its 57th meeting on 17 April 2002, the Sports Committee recommended that the bill be adopted as amended by the coalition parliamentary groups. The SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups voted in favour, with the CDU/CSU and FDP parliamentary groups abstaining. The PDS parliamentary group was not present. During its 92nd meeting on 24 April 2002, the Committee on Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture recommended that the Government bill, printed paper 14/7758, be adopted with the amendments of the coalition parliamentary groups and amendments 2 and 4 introduced by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. The SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, and CDU/CSU parliamentary groups outvoted the FDP parliamentary group, with the PDS parliamentary group abstaining. The committee voted unanimously to recommend that the Bundesrat bill, printed paper 14/763, be rejected.
During its 86th meeting on 24 April 2002, the Committee on Tourism recommended that the Government bill, printed paper 14/7758, be adopted. The SPD, CDU/CSU, and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups outvoted the FDP parliamentary group, with the PDS parliamentary group abstaining.
During its 89th meeting on 24 April 2002, the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth recommended that the Government bill, printed paper 14/7758, be adopted with the amendments of the coalition parliamentary groups and amendments 2 and 4 introduced by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. The SPD, CDU/CSU, and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups outvoted the FDP parliamentary group. The PDS parliamentary group was not present. Additionally, the committee recommended that the Bundesrat's bill, printed paper 14/763, be rejected, with the SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, and CDU/CSU parliamentary groups outvoting the FDP parliamentary group. The PDS parliamentary group was not present.

3. Deliberations in the committee responsible

a) During its 88th meeting on 27 February 2002, the Committee on Internal Affairs decided unanimously to hold a public hearing on the draft Act to Reform the Weapons Law.
The Committee on Internal Affairs held the public hearing during its 92nd meeting on 20 March 2002. Attention is drawn to the minutes of the hearing, in which 15 experts participated.
The Committee on Internal Affairs concluded its deliberations on the bills, printed papers 14/7758 and 14/763, during its 95th meeting on 24 April 2002.
The result of the deliberations was that the Government bill, printed paper 14/7758, was adopted with the amendments of the coalition parliamentary groups and amendments 2 and 4 introduced by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. The SPD, CDU/CSU, and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups outvoted the FDP and PDS parliamentary groups. Before this, the amendments of the coalition parliamentary groups, committee printed paper 14/819, were adopted, with the SPD, CDU/CSU, and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups voting in favour and the FDP and PDS parliamentary groups abstaining.
The coalition parliamentary groups' motion for a resolution, committee printed paper 14/820, was adopted, with the SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups outvoting the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. The FDP and PDS parliamentary groups abstained.
Amendments 1 to 6 introduced by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, committee printed paper 14/821, were each voted on separately.
Amendments 1, 3 and 5 were rejected, with the SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups outvoting the CDU/CSU and FDP parliamentary groups. The PDS parliamentary group abstained.
Amendments 2 and 4 were adopted, with all parliamentary groups voting in favour with the exception of the PDS parliamentary group, which abstained.
Amendment 6 was withdrawn by the parliamentary group which had proposed it during the course of the deliberations.
The amendments proposed by the PDS parliamentary group, committee printed paper 14/882, were rejected. The PDS parliamentary group was outvoted by the other parliamentary groups, with the exception of the FDP parliamentary group, which abstained.
The Bundesrat's bill, printed paper 14/763, was rejected by all the parliamentary groups, with the exception of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, which abstained.

b) Amendments 1 to 6 proposed by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, committee printed paper 14/821, and the reasons for them are worded as follows:
...

II. Reasons

1. The amendments introduced by the coalition parliamentary groups are essentially proposed for the following reasons:

I. Article 1(Weapons Act)

1. § 1 subpara. 3

The first amendment in subparagraph 3 is a necessary addition to the categories of handling, as the carrying of weapons or ammunition on journeys into, through or out of the area of application of the law is not simply a subcategory of the transfer of weapons or ammunition; it is linked to different legal consequences, and this separate category of handling must also be taken into consideration in the amendments to Subsection 5.
The amendment of the last part of the sentence is linked to the current legal situation and is intended to ensure conformity with the definitions of manufacturing, modifying and repairing firearms or ammunition as separate categories of handling (Annex 1, subpara. 2, no. 8.1 and no. 8.2), foregoing a general term.

2. ...

(further reasons for the proposed amendments are given in the following part of the report)

Ernst Bahr
Dr. Max Stadler

Hartmut Koschyk
Ulla Jelpke

Cem Özdemir