Ausschuss für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und
Entwicklung
Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development
A body of the German Bundestag (Parliament)
The committees of the German Bundestag are bodies which prepare the decisions subsequently taken in the plenary in the course of the legislative process and support Parliament in its function of exercising control of the executive. Generally, there is a Bundestag committee which corresponds to each ministry. Parallel to the establishment of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Bundestag set up the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development in 1961.
Composition of the CommitteeThe number of committees and committee members is fixed by the Bundestag every electoral term. In the 16th electoral term, the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development comprises 22 members: eight from the CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union) parliamentary group, eight from the SPD (Social Democratic Party) parliamentary group and two members each from the FDP (Free Democratic Party), The Left Party and Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary groups. This composition reflects the relative strengths of the parliamentary groups in the plenary of the German Bundestag. There is a substitute member for each regular member of the Committee.
The Committee is chaired by Thilo Hoppe from the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group; his deputy is Sibylle Pfeiffer from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Each of the parliamentary groups on the Committee chooses a member as its committee spokesperson, who often also serves as public spokesperson on development policy for the parliamentary group as a whole. The chairperson, deputy chairperson and parliamentary groups' spokespersons on the Committee meet regularly for consultations (known as "spokespersons' consultations") on basic issues relating to the Committee's work, agenda or timetables.
Duties and responsibilities of the CommitteeThe Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development is the parliamentary body which corresponds to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Its basic duties and responsibilities include deliberating on bills, motions, communications and EU items referred to the Committee by the plenary. If such an item concerns several committees, the Committee either participates in the deliberations in an advisory capacity, informing the committee responsible appointed by the plenary of its opinion, or it is itself the committee responsible, including in its decision the opinions of the committees participating in an advisory capacity and submitting its recommendation for a resolution to the plenary.
However, in addition to its work as a parliamentary body which prepares the decisions of the German Bundestag, the Committee can also consider issues falling within its terms of reference on its own initiative and place any kind of topical or fundamental issue on its agenda. The basis for deliberations on such issues is mostly a report of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, which the Committee has requested and which sets forth a specific matter or comments on the statements or declarations of third parties. However, guests from international organisations, NGOs or the academic community are also often invited for discussions with the parliamentarians. The assessments of the Committee which emerge from the subsequent discussion are not legally binding on the Federal Government, but are of considerable political importance. In practice, this procedure is the instrument which the Committee most frequently uses in the exercise of parliamentary control of the Federal Government.
The exercise of parliamentary control is also served by the instrument of public hearings, to which certain academic and practising experts, proposed by the parliamentary groups and chosen by the Committee, are invited. The hearings and the experts' written statements are documented in a stenographic record, which can be accessed by all interested parties.
In order to gain its own impression of development cooperation with partner countries, the Committee sends delegations abroad to verify locally whether the development cooperation supported by state aid is carried out in a target-oriented and efficient manner. After each delegation trip, a comprehensive report is produced for all members of the Committee and discussed in detail at a Committee meeting after the Federal Government has stated its opinion.
The Committee's work is based on a set patternThe Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development holds its meetings regularly each Wednesday in the weeks which the Bundestag has designated as weeks of sittings. The chairman convenes and presides over the meetings of the Committee. He represents the Committee and regulates its affairs in agreement with the parliamentary groups' spokespersons on the Committee. At administrative level, the Committee is assisted in its work by a secretariat with four members of staff. The main duties and responsibilities of the Secretariat include preparing, organising and following up on the Committee's meetings. This involves, for example, preparing the documents to be discussed, distributing the agenda, drafting recommendations for decisions and reports for the plenary and producing the minutes of the meetings, as well as preparing and following up on trips by delegations from the Committee.
