Functions
Like the other German Bundestag committees, the Defence Committee has two main tasks: it prepares the decisions to be taken by the plenary with regard to legislation and it also supports Parliament in scrutinising the work of the government.
Involvement in legislation
The classic tasks of the Defence Committee include deliberating on bills and motions and other items referred to it by the plenary. If such an item is relevant to several committees, the Defence Committee in some cases participates in the deliberations in an advisory capacity, informing the committee responsible appointed by the plenary of its opinion. In some cases, it is itself nominated the committee responsible; it therefore includes in its decision the opinions of the committees participating in an advisory capacity and submits its recommendation to the plenary as to whether to adopt or reject a resolution, along with a report.
In the initial years after the establishment of the Defence Committee, this role of shaping legislation was particularly important, since a new legal framework had to be created for the Bundeswehr, which was established in 1955. For this reason, the main task of the Defence Committee in its early phase was to assist in shaping legislation on the armed forces. In this context, the Legal Status of Military Personnel Act, the Compulsory Military Service Act, the Military Pensions Act and the Military Disciplinary Code should be mentioned. Once legislation on the armed forces had been adopted in the 1950s, the focus of the Committee's work shifted to concentrate more strongly on the second classic duty of a committee: parliamentary oversight of the work of the executive. Nevertheless, shaping legislation still of course plays a role – and it is not just a matter of amending existing laws. Over the last few years in particular, against the background of increasingly frequent deployments abroad, the Defence Committee has fed its ideas into laws drafted as a reaction by Parliament to the changing situation – either as the committee responsible or in an advisory capacity. Examples of this include the 2004 Special Foreign Assignments Benefits and Pensions Act and the 2007 Act on the Continued Employment of Personnel for Operations.
Parliamentary oversight
The Defence Committee is the parliamentary body which corresponds to the Federal Ministry of Defence and its subordinate agencies, i.e. the armed forces and the Federal Defence Administration. Thus, its remit covers a larger section of the executive than any other Bundestag committee. In addition, the potential power of the armed forces calls for particularly intensive scrutiny. For this reason in particular, the Defence Committee has to have a special status in several ways in order to effectively carry out its role of exercising oversight. Not only is the committee's very existence stipulated in Article 45a of the Basic Law; it is also the only committee of the German Bundestag which can convene itself as a committee of inquiry. The Defence Committee also plays an important role in deliberating on and executing the defence budget. Finally, Article 45b of the Basic Law establishes the institution of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, to assist the Bundestag in exercising parliamentary oversight. The Parliamentary Commissioner's assessment of the current situation of the troops, as set out in his or her annual reports, represent an important source of information and knowledge and is therefore fed into deliberations.
Like all the other committees, the Defence Committee can also consider and make recommendations on issues falling within its terms of reference on its own initiative, without an item having been referred to it by the plenary. The basis for such deliberations is generally a report by the Federal Ministry of Defence, which the Committee has requested and which sets forth a specific matter or comments on the reports or representations of third parties. The assessments of the Defence 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 oversight of the Federal Government. It corresponds to the right of the committees, laid down in the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag, to summon a member of the Federal Government to a committee meeting at any time (Rule 68 of the Rules of Procedure).
