Legal basis of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union

The Committee on the Affairs of the European Union is one of the committees expressly referred to in the German constitution, the Basic Law. Article 45 of the Basic Law states that such a committee must be established in every electoral term, creating an institutional guarantee.The Committee on the Affairs of the European Union was established and the relevant amendments made to the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag in 1994. Thus, the organisational changes and amendments to parliamentary law required to comply with Article 23 (2), sentence 1 of the Basic Law, which states that the Bundestag shall participate in matters concerning the European Union.

All the committees in the German Bundestag are responsible for deliberating on European affairs within the framework of their subject-area responsibilities. Yet the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union is the central focus of the parliamentary decision-making process on European policy.

In September 2006, the President of the Bundestag and the Federal Chancellor signed an agreement between the German Bundestag and the Federal Government on cooperation in European Union Affairs pursuant to Section 6 of the Act on Cooperation between the Federal Government and the German Bundestag in Matters concerning the European Union. This agreement, known as the BBV, serves to further strengthen the Bundestag's rights of participation in European policy. It widens the scope of the Federal Government's reporting responsibilities and lays down a fixed timescale for this reporting. It also shortens the amount of time within which the ministries have to present their reports on EU projects and ensures that more comprehensive information on the meetings of Council of Ministers and other bodies is made available.