No time for intensive debate: Opposition irritated by the haste of the traffic light for green electricity

Left and CDU are angry with the traffic light coalition: They want to bring the EU resolutions on the accelerated expansion of green electricity through the Bundestag on Friday.

No time for intensive debate: Opposition irritated by the haste of the traffic light for green electricity

Left and CDU are angry with the traffic light coalition: They want to bring the EU resolutions on the accelerated expansion of green electricity through the Bundestag on Friday. Before that, there would be no time for a debate and for hearing experts, the opposition complains. Training is not possible at such short notice.

The opposition in the Bundestag is angry about the traffic light coalition's approach to implementing EU resolutions on the faster expansion of green electricity and grids. The project, which is due to be passed in parliament on Friday, had not been submitted to either the building committee or the climate protection committee by Tuesday, complained the chairman of the climate protection committee, Klaus Ernst, in a letter to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, from which the editorial network Germany (RND) quoted .

"This is an unacceptable way of dealing with Parliament and does not do justice to the importance of the German Bundestag as the central constitutional body for legislation," the letter said. “The factions only have a few hours to listen to experts and familiarize themselves with the matter,” said Ernst to the RND. "That has never happened to me in 18 years of parliamentary work."

It is about the implementation of the so-called EU emergency regulation, with which the EU wants to counter the energy shortage as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The federal states and the responsible authorities are thus given the legal basis to, among other things, approve new wind turbines more quickly.

The coalition had struggled for a long time about the details, sometimes in connection with other EU requirements for environmental and climate protection. An agreement was only reached this week. In order to speed up legislation, the new regulation is to be attached to a draft amendment to the Spatial Planning Act, which is already up for vote in the Bundestag on Friday.

According to RND, the parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, wrote a letter to Bas. "With the final consultation, the coalition factions want to put an end to a process that can only be described as a farce," says Frei's letter.

"The low point of the entire process was the events surrounding the public hearing," the RND continued to quote from the letter. Only shortly before the start of the committee meetings on Wednesday were the relevant texts sent to the Bundestag for the first time, “including a 58-page synopsis of the changes”.

In addition, the hearing was scheduled by the coalition majority for the same day with a lead time of four hours. "In these few hours it was not actually possible to get experts for the hearing, let alone to give them the opportunity for professional preparation," wrote Frei.