The Committee on Foreign Affairs is one of the largest and most prestigious commit­tees in the German Bundestag. It has a special constitutional position because it is one of only a few committees to be explicitly mentioned in the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution. Under Article 45 a (1) of the Basic Law, the German Bundestag must appoint a committee on foreign affairs. The Weimar Constitution contained a similar clause. This is especially notable because both constitutions also state that foreign policy is primarily a matter for the executive. However, regarding both the transfer of sovereign powers to international organisations, and treaties that regulate the politi­cal relations of the Federation or relate to subjects of federal legislation, the Basic Law stipulates that Parliament must be involved.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs is responsible for scrutinising the Federal Govern­ment’s foreign policy. No other committee may carry out this task. But the Commit­tee’s tasks are much more wide-ranging. It is an initiator of new ideas, a provider of impetus for the Federal Government, and the organ of the German Bundestag which causes the Federal Government to reflect upon its foreign-policy views. All of this is of special significance because foreign policy is to a large extent crisis-prevention policy and Parliament, through its involvement, assumes a share of the responsibility.

It has been the Federal Constitutional Court, in particular, that has in several fundamen­tal decisions significantly expanded the importance and the scope for ac­tion in foreign policy of the German Bundestag and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Germany’s highest court spoke in January 1994 of a “parliamentarisation of foreign policy” and in 2001 of the Bundestag’s right to “participate in foreign relations”. The court has made the most important foreign-policy decision of all, namely whether to deploy the armed forces, contingent on the “– in principle, prior – constitutive consent of the German Bundestag”. In these difficult matters, it is the Committee on Foreign Affairs which submits recommendations to the plenary; to date, the plenary has not deviated from them in a single case. This illustrates the high level of responsibility borne on both this and all other issues by the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, who include many former Federal Ministers, Ministers of State and Parliamen­tary State Secretaries.

Berlin, February 2006

Ruprecht Polenz, Member of the Bundestag

Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs