Bundestag and Bundesrat stance towards European integration in the light  of the „Lisbon” judgement of the Federal Constitutional Court

It is difficult not to voice the assessment, that the „Lisbon” judgement of the Federal Constitutional Court carries all features not of the legislative decisions, but the political ones. This statement may be justified with a fact, that Tribunal’s objections are directed ultimately not towards lack of proper regulations relating to the Treaty, but against the Lisbon Treaty itself. But because its ratification should not have been stopped, the surrounding legislation has been used as an excuse to express reservations against the Lisbon Treaty. This means – from the formal point of view – both Treaty and Act Approving the Treaty are flawless. At the same time, it is difficult to forget, that the same Court, indirectly with this judgement contravened one of the fundamental of the constitutional rules, that is ban to formulate these kind of opinion which acceptance would lead to the (in this case) change of the Treaty or at least to express objection(s) according to the international law.

The status and the role of parliamentary opposition in the German Bundestag – chosen issues

The article concerns chosen issues of the institution of the parliamentary opposition in the German parliamentary system. The parliamentary opposition in the German system of governments is a universally accepted phenomenon. Many factors affect its status and the position, from the structure of internal organs and the way of creating them, for specific institutions of the parliamentary law allowing for active participating in the realization of basic functions of the Bundestag. A President of the Bundestag, a Presidium, Advice of Seniors and committees are internal organs of the German Bundestag. The manner of the casting of individual organs, their tasks and the way of proceeding (especially Advice of Seniors) enable opposition groupings in the real way to influence functioning of the Chamber. In the process, in spite of the lack of the legal institutionalization of the phenomenon of the opposition on the federal level, it is possible to tell about political recognizing laws to the parliamentary opposition in Germany.

The Bundestag is the largest democratically elected parliament in the world, only the Chinese National People’s Congress is larger. At the moment, 138 more members sit in the Berlin Reichstag than the legally required size, thanks to overhang and compensatory mandates. The Federal Constitutional Court has already declared the federal electoral law unconstitutional several times. All parties agree that the German Bundestag must become smaller again. This is to be achieved by fundamental reform of the electoral law.

The Role of the Federal Election Commission in the Electoral Process – Remarks Based on the Background of the 2021 Bundestag Elections

During the preparation and conduct of elections to the Bundestag, up to the determination and confirmation of the election result and the allocation of seats, electoral and administrative bodies and other institutions make a number of decisions and actions related to the elections. The procedure for verifying the correctness of the elections takes place after the elections, so it comes too late. The Federal Elections Act provides for legal remedies that can be taken before the elections, i.e. a complaint against the decision of the Federal Election Commission not to grant party status and a complaint against the decision of the State Election Commission not to admit the national list to the elections. The article is a synthetic analysis of the competence of the federal election commission in the field of applying legal measures to prevent irregularities during elections.

The analysis of the procedure for the verification of the Bundestag elections, based on the experience of the September 2021 elections, raises legitimate concerns about its efficiency and reveals at the same time the need for its thorough reform. The current two-stage process, involving first parliamentary proceedings and then judicial review, can lead to lengthy delays. As the experience of the twentieth-term Bundestag elections has shown, the election verification proceedings took twenty-seven months, i.e. more than half the term of the current Bundestag. Introducing a one-step election verification procedure, leaving it in the remit of the Federal Constitutional Court, would speed up the decision-making process, increase the independence of the adjudication and improve citizens’ confidence in democratic institutions and the regularity of elections.