View of the plenum of the Bundestag Image: AFP
On Friday, the Bundestag will deal with the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court to ban the vote on the heating law this week. The short-term debate takes place at the request of the Union faction.
On Friday, the Bundestag will deal with the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court to ban the vote on the heating law this week. As the parliament announced on Thursday evening, the agenda was changed at the request of the Union faction and a debate on the decision of the Karlsruhe judges was scheduled for Friday morning (9:45 a.m.). The CDU and CSU are submitting an application that calls for a “fundamental restart” of the heating law.
On Wednesday, the Federal Constitutional Court prohibited the final vote on the Building Energy Act (GEG) planned for Friday. The reason for this was an emergency application by the CDU MP Thomas Heilmann, who felt that his rights were being impaired due to the short consultation periods for the draft law. The heads of the traffic light factions then decided that the vote should only take place after the summer break at the beginning of September.
The Union faction wants to debate the events on Friday. In their application, it says that the federal government is “systematically disregarding the rights of Parliament and the Bundesrat through the excessive use of shortened deadlines for legislative projects”. The decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on the heating law is “a serious defeat for the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz Scholz and an exclamation point for the right of the members of the German Bundestag to a thorough consultation of laws”.
“The heavy blow from Karlsruhe for the traffic lights must not become a permanent setback for climate protection,” the Union application continues. “That’s why it’s not enough to simply push through the same law in a new procedure. Lost trust can only be restored with a fundamental new start on the matter.”
The Union faction also demands that “direct regulation for the replacement of heating in existing buildings” must be dispensed with. The aim must also be “to harmonize a new building energy law with municipal heating planning and at the same time to create clarity about the promotion of private households when converting to ecological heating”.
In the debate, parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU), CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt and MP Heilmann will speak from the Union side. According to the Bundestag, it is still unclear whether the MPs will vote directly on the bill or whether it will be referred to the committees for further discussion.
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