The CDU parliamentary group sees committees of inquiry unfairly tailored and has complained. The state constitutional court did not follow the criticism at a hearing on Thursday. The verdict is still pending.
Greifswald (dpa/mv) – In the proceedings about supposedly unfairly tailored state parliament investigative committees, the state constitutional court has shown itself to be skeptical about complaints by the CDU state parliamentary group. There are certain guidelines when it comes to determining the size of investigative committees, said Court President Monika Köster-Flachsmeyer on Thursday. The court can only intervene if decisions move outside of these guard rails.
The CDU parliamentary group had sued twice because it considered the restriction of the parliamentary committees of inquiry (PUA) on the university clinics and the climate protection foundation to 9 instead of 13 members to be unfair. As a result, the CDU only gets one seat instead of two. According to the law, the distribution of seats must reflect the majority in the state parliament as far as possible.
According to Köster-Flachsmeyer, the fact that there cannot be a complete mirror image results from the reject principle. Even the principle according to which at least one member of each parliamentary group must be involved deviates from the mirror image. She considers the reasoning of the state parliament to be understandable. He had argued that smaller committees wanted to reduce the workload for parliamentarians. Köster-Flachsmeyer pointed out that the specialist committees alone had more seats than there were parliamentarians.
The CDU had argued that in investigative committees with 13 members – as requested by the CDU, FDP and Greens – there was more mirror imagery. In addition, the CDU state parliament member Sebastian Ehlers said that the additional workload of 13 instead of 9-member investigative committees does not endanger the ability of parliament to work.
The investigative committee initiated by the opposition into the two university clinics in Rostock and Greifswald is to investigate the suspicion of mismanagement and the waste of tax funds. The committee on the controversial climate foundation Mecklenburg-West Pomerania should shed light on the background of the foundation. It is related to the also controversial German-Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which was completed but never went into operation.
The SPD and Left had limited the size to nine members with amendments. By his own admission, Köster-Flachsmeyer sees no blatant deviation from the mirror image. A verdict is expected to be announced on February 23.
