Research papers published by the Research Services of the Deutscher Bundestag
This page sets out the English summaries of the research papers published by the Research Services. A link from the end of the summary will take you to the complete research paper in German.
Please note the disclaimer and copyright notice.
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Programme of the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU, 2012
On 1 July 2012, the Republic of Cyprus took over the six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time since its accession to the EU in 2004. Cyprus wants to work towards a "better Europe", despite the difficult situation at the start of its presidency. Only recently, on 25 June 2012, the country requested assistance from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). In addition, there is no solution in sight to the Cyprus conflict, which has seen Turkey occupy the northern part of Cyprus since 1974.
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Circumcision and criminal law
Following a recent ruling by Cologne Regional Court, this issue of the Topical Term looks at the legally contentious issue of whether the circumcision of boys on religious grounds is a criminal offence.
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The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was established in 2001 as an organisation bringing together China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Originally, it focused on security-policy cooperation between the member states; today, in addition to seeking to maintain stability in the region and tackle terrorism, separatism and extremism, it also deals with economic and trade issues.
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Ninety years ago: the murder of Walther Rathenau
On the morning of 24 June 1922, Walter Rathenau, Foreign Minister of the German Reich, was shot dead in Berlin by members of the right-wing extremist "Organisation Consul". Rathenau was viewed as a proponent of the policy of accommodation with the victorious powers in World War I, derided by critics as a "fulfilment policy". The aggressive rhetoric levelled at Rathenau by right-wing parties was also aimed at his Jewish origins, however. News of his death led to tumultuous scenes in the Reichstag. Communists and Social Democrats in particular, along with spectators in the galleries, asserted that right-wing members of parliament, particularly the nationalist Karl Helfferich, bore part of the blame for the murder. Rathenau's death triggered mass demonstrations and a wave of support for the Republic across Germany. In reaction to the murder, the Reich government enacted the "Act to Protect the Republic", which allowed the banning of organisations hostile to the Republic. Even today, Rathenau’s murder is etched into the Germans' collective memory.
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Inclusive education in Germany
In December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). People with disabilities and their advocacy groups had for the first time been involved in the creation and shaping of the Convention. On 26 March 2009, the UNCRPD was ratified in Germany. On 1 December 2011, the German Bundestag also deliberated in depth on the topics of inclusion and disability. The basic idea behind the UNCRPD is to achieve a paradigm shift in perceptions of and behaviour towards disabled people. The aim of inclusion is for the differences between people to be recognised at an individual level. What this means for schools is the dismantling of obstacles to the learning and participation of people with disabilities.
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Twenty-five years ago - Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate
In 1987, on the occasion of Berlin’s 750th anniversary, US President Ronald Reagan visited the Western part of Berlin, which at that time was still a divided city. On 12 June, he held a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall lasting around 30 minutes, culminating in the appeal: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Although the thousands of people in the audience greeted these words with spontaneous, enthusiastic applause, their historic significance was by no means immediately clear. Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 did they appear "prophetic" and the US President a "harbinger of change" (John Kornblum). Elsewhere in his speech, Reagan talked about his understanding of freedom, the West’s reconstruction efforts following the Second World War, and the history of NATO’s double-track decision.
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Shadow banking system
In the current debate about how to strengthen the financial system, discussion of the shadow banking system has become increasingly prominent. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) established by the G20 countries defines the shadow banking system as "credit intermediation involving entities and activities outside the regular banking system". This issue of the Topical Term deals with the volumes, benefits and risks of the shadow banking system as well as considerations about how to regulate it.
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Power to Gas
The term Power to Gas describes new technologies designed for the storage and transport of renewable energies as well for the compensation of fluctuations in such sources due to the variations in the weather and season. Electricity generated locally from renewable sources is converted by way of chemical reactions into CO2-neutral energy carriers with high energy densities. Once electrical energy has been converted into chemically bound energy in the form of hydrogen or methane, it can be utilised later at the same or a different location. It can be transported via the natural gas pipeline network and it can also be stored with the help of the natural gas infrastructure. Moreover, the concept of Power to Gas opens up new possibilities for the exploitation of wind and solar energy both in the sustainable mobility sector and for further chemical processes making use of hydrogen produced through electrolysis.
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The debate about the Eastern Treaties, 1969-1972
The Brandt-Scheel government’s new Ostpolitik sparked fierce debate in West Germany and led to a sharp polarisation in domestic politics. While the Social Democratic-Liberal government saw the steps it was taking - with the aim of achieving stable relations and an understanding with the Warsaw Pact states - primarily as a contribution to establishing and stabilising a peaceful international order, the CDU/CSU opposition did not believe the Communist side was genuinely willing to come to an agreement. The opposition saw the treaties with the Eastern states as an abandonment of national principles.
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The new Ostpolitik of the Social Democratic-Liberal government, 1969-1972
Forty years ago, on 17 May 1972, the German Bundestag gave its consent at second reading to the Treaty of Moscow and the Treaty of Warsaw, which were intended to produce more peaceful, stable relations, characterised by understanding, with the Soviet Union and Poland. In doing so, Parliament confirmed the approach to West Germany’s Ostpolitik and policy on Germany introduced three years previously by the new Social Democratic-Liberal government led by Chancellor Willy Brandt (SPD) and Walter Scheel (FDP), Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. This approach, encapsulated in the slogan "Change through rapprochement", aimed to end the paralysis in foreign policy, facilitate humanitarian improvements and stabilise a peaceful European order.
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Anonymous application processes
The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency has completed its "Depersonalised Application Procedures" pilot project, which aimed to show whether anonymous job application processes are practical in German companies and public authorities, and how they compare to traditional approaches. This issue of the Topical Term provides a summary of the project’s results.
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The Islamist group Boko Haram
Since 2009 a wave of attacks has been taking place in Nigeria, targeting state security forces as well as churches, mosques, schools and markets; over 900 people have been killed. Responsibility has been claimed by a militant Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which is calling for the establishment of an Islamic state and the introduction of sharia law throughout the country. This issue of the Topical Term looks at the sect’s structure, aims, and possible international links.
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Fiscal Treaty
The term "fiscal treaty" is used as shorthand for the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, which has been signed by the heads of state and government of 25 EU Member States - not including the UK and the Czech Republic - but has not yet been ratified. This issue of the Topical Term examines the legal nature of the treaty, its contents and its consequences for the states which ratify it.
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Hate crimes
The term 'hate crime' is used to refer to criminal offences the victims of which have been chosen precisely because they belong to a certain social group that the perpetrator objects to. Currently there are several motions pending on this subject (a bill introduced by the SPD parliamentary group, Bundestag printed paper 17/8131; a motion tabled by the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, Bundestag printed paper 17/8796; and a bill introduced by the Bundesrat, Bundesrat printed paper 26/12). This Topical Term discusses these and gives examples of similar legislation in other countries.
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Skilled labour shortage in Germany. Statistics, studies, strategies
A representative selection of forecasts, studies and statistics from a variety of research institutes, which are summarised, all expect a shortage of qualified professionals in Germany in the coming years particularly in the maths, IT, science and technology sectors as well as in the health professions. The decisive factors in this shortage are the demographic trend (the shrinking and ageing population) and the transformation of the economy to create a service and information society. According to the 12th Population Projection of the Federal Statistical Office, there will be only approximately 36 million people of working age between 20 and 65 in the year 2060 - that is 27 percent fewer than today. This forecast is based on an optimistic assumption that there will be annual net immigration of 200,000 people. In view of this and other forecasts, a twin strategy is frequently recommended: on the one hand, unlocking the full potential of the domestic labour pool. This means, for example, introducing measures to increase the economic activity of women, models for keeping older workers longer in employment, and for instruments to improve the integration of people with an immigrant background into the labour market; on the other hand, the qualified immigration of foreign skilled labour, which may also entail amending current immigration rules that are seen by some as too bureaucratic.
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The Hungarian parliament and party system
The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is planning to use his two-thirds majority in Parliament to reform his country’s electoral law. In its current form, the electoral law favours - in comparison to Germany’s system - large parties or electoral alliances, as majority voting plays a greater role. - Hungarian electoral law requires parties to obtain more than 5% of the vote in order to be represented in Parliament. - 176 parliamentary seats are allocated in single-member constituencies; to be elected, a candidate must win an absolute majority of the votes cast. - The remaining seats are allocated by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies. Following the 2010 elections, Hungary’s unicameral parliament has had 386 seats. Orbán’s alliance is composed of the right-wing liberal and anti-Communist Alliance of Young Democrats (FIDESZ) and the Catholic Christian-Democratic People’s Party (KDNP). Both parties are members of the European People’s Party (EPP) and are part of the Christian-Democratic Group in the European Parliament. The three opposition parties are, firstly, the socialist MSZP, which was the main government party from 2002 to 2010; secondly, the Green party Politics can be different (LMP), which is represented in Parliament for the first time; and, thirdly, Jobbik, whose name is a play on words that can mean "Right" either in the political sense or in the sense of "correct". Jobbik is seen as being anti-multiculturalism, anti-Semitic and anti-Roma.
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Ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court on the German Bundestag’s EFSF Panel
In its judgement of 28 February 2012, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the transfer of decision-making powers concerning the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) from the Bundestag to the nine-person panel established by the Stabilisation Mechanism Act in most cases infringes the rights of the Members of the Bundestag, as enshrined in Article 38 (1), sentence 2 of the Basic Law. The Court ruled that the delegation of powers to the Panel is only permissible for decisions on the EFSF buying up sovereign bonds on the secondary markets.
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Obligations of hosting service providers to protect third-party intellectual property according to the judgment of the European Court of Justice of 16 February 2012 (case no. C-360/10)
In a judgment of principle of 16 February 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union was asked to rule on whether it is compatible with European Union law for a court order to be issued to a hosting service provider operating as a social network that requires it to introduce a preventative general filter system at its own expense to log all the data of a network’s users for the purpose of preventing the unlawful use of musical, cinematographic or audiovisual works.
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Reserves of the statutory pension scheme
On account of Germany’s good economic performance and the increase in employment, the reserves of the statutory pension insurance scheme have grown in the last few years. The sustainability reserve is approaching the prescribed maximum value of 1.5 months of expenditure.
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Programme of the 2012 Danish Presidency of the EU Council
On January 1, Denmark took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Poland for the first half of 2012. The programme of the Presidency is divided into four themes: a responsible Europe, a dynamic Europe, a green Europe and a safe Europe. Even as a non-euro country, the Danish Presidency aims to use these priorities to help solve the economic and financial crisis.
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E-Books
An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a publication in digital form and readable on e-readers, computers or other digital devices. Forecasts indicate a growing demand for digital content around the world. E-books will become established as a further book format in addition to paperbacks and hardcover. The shift to e-books and digital publishing is challenging the basic models of copyright and contracts that underlie the functioning of book markets.
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Council of Europe Convention on the counterfeiting of medical products
On 28 October 2011 in Moscow, Germany signed the Council of Europe Convention on the Counterfeiting of Medical Products and Similar Crimes Involving Threats to Public Health of 4 August 2011. The purpose of the Convention is to introduce substantive criminal law provisions in the member states of the Council of Europe to provide protection against counterfeit medical drugs as well as their supply and trade in them. The Council of Europe’s Convention is essentially born of an initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A recommendation was made to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 20 April 2007. It called upon the member states of the Council of Europe to create a specific legal framework for dealing with counterfeit medical drugs.