The Bundestag scrutinises the German Federal Government in connection with the affairs of the European Union by adopting decisions on European policy, which are known as opinions. Article 23(3) of the Basic Law and the more detailed provisions set out in Section 5 of the Act on Cooperation between the Federal Government and the German Bundestag in Matters concerning the European Union lay down that, before it takes part in the process leading to the adoption of a European legislative act, the German Federal Government must give the Bundestag an opportunity to state its opinion and that the German Federal Government must take account of the opinions delivered by the Bundestag in its conduct of negotiations.

Involvement of parliamentary committees

As a rule, the plenary adopts opinions on the basis of the recommendations for decisions delivered by the committees responsible once they have completed their deliberations. In exceptional cases, the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union (EU Committee) may exercise the rights of the Bundestag by adopting a decision without the participation of the plenary.

Binding opinions

With its opinion, the Bundestag defines substantive positions that are regarded as binding on the German Federal Government. It is expected that these positions will be adopted during the negotiating and decision-making processes in the Council. However, the German Federal Government is not always in a position to fulfil these expectations. There may be various reasons why this is not possible. The government may not be able to persuade its partners from the other Member States to agree to the measures in question in a process of negotiation that is oriented towards compromise. It is also conceivable the German Federal Government may take the view that following the opinion delivered by the Bundestag would restrict the Federal Republic of Germany’s ability to act on policy issues relevant to European integration. Finally, given that there are many areas of policy subject to majority voting, the German Federal Government may simply be outvoted. In all these cases, the German Federal Government has an obligation to account for its actions to the Bundestag and the parliamentary committees concerned with the item and explain why it has not been possible to gain acceptance for the opinion of parliament in the negotiations.

Parliamentary scrutiny reservation

The period granted to the Bundestag for the delivery of its opinion therefore needs to be long enough to ensure parliament has sufficient opportunity to examine the item. If it is not possible for the Bundestag to deliberate on an item in good time, the German Federal Government cannot give its consent to the legal act in Brussels and must lodge what is known as a parliamentary scrutiny reservation with the EU Council. The parliamentary scrutiny reservation may be lifted at the following meeting of the Council if the Bundestag has had the opportunity to deliver an opinion on the matter in the meantime.

Other participatory and monitoring rights in EU affairs

Apart from its participation in the consideration of EU legislation that is still the subject of ongoing negotiations, the Bundestag is also involved in the adoption of acts to ratify international agreements, the amendment of the Treaties and the accession of new Members to the Union. The European Treaties also require that, before they can become effective, certain decisions of the Council - including the definition of a common defence policy - further developments of Union citizenship, the establishment of a uniform legal framework for European elections and the creation of an own resources system – have to be approved by the Member States “in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements”. In Germany, this means that it is necessary for the Bundestag (and the Bundesrat) to participate in the ratification process. Furthermore, the Bundestag scrutinises the European policy of the German Federal Government using a range of other instruments, such as parliamentary debates, question times and debates on matters of topical interest. Finally, following prior deliberation in the specialist committees, it adopts legislation intended to implement EU directives.