Weekly Updates from the German Parliament (Bundestag)

Weekly Updates from the German Parliament (Bundestag)

Centralizing Legal Services and Promoting Climate-Friendly Mobility: Key Points from the Federal Government's Latest Bills

The German federal government has put forth a series of draft bills aiming to streamline various sectors, improve administrative processes, and promote climate-friendly mobility. Here's a rundown of the key points:

Centralizing Legal Services

• The federal government is proposing a bill to centralize the supervision of legal services, with the Federal Office of Justice taking responsibility for registration and supervision. This move aims to eliminate the fragmentation of supervision and bundle expertise.
• The bill also allows for the approval of certain training courses and the conduct of aptitude tests to be transferred to legal entities under public law.
• Associations will be given the power to hold virtual meetings with a simple resolution, without amending their statutes.
• The Legal Services Act (RDG) will be amended to regulate who may provide extrajudicial legal services and require legal supervision of their work to ensure the quality of the legal services offered.

Strengthening Administrative Court Proceedings

• The draft bill aims to accelerate administrative court proceedings in the infrastructure sector. Proceedings already assigned to the higher administrative courts or the Federal Administrative Court in the first instance will be given priority and acceleration over other proceedings.

Combating Tax Avoidance and Facilitating Tax Information Exchange

• The federal government is working on a bill to facilitate the exchange of tax-relevant information between Germany and the United States to combat tax avoidance models of multinational corporations.

Digitalizing Energy Transition

• The coalition factions are introducing a bill in the Bundestag this week to restart the digitalization of the energy transition, focusing on the rollout of Smart Meters.

Promoting Climate-Friendly Mobility: The Germany Ticket

• The Germany ticket, a nationwide public transportation pass, will be available as a subscription from April 2023 and will be valid from May. It will initially cost €49 per month and can be cancelled monthly.
• The ticket will be valid for buses and trains throughout Germany in the entire local and regional transport network.
• The aim of the Germany ticket is to make public transport more attractive and to financially relieve commuters, as well as to contribute to more climate-friendly mobility. The ticket consolidates multiple regional public transit systems into one nationwide easy-to-use pass, reducing complexity for users and administrative overhead.

Funding the Germany Ticket

• The federal government and the federal states share the financial burden equally, each contributing €1.5 billion annually until 2025. If costs exceed this amount, additional expenses are currently shared, but the federal government has signaled it does not want to increase its financial commitments beyond 2024.

Inland Navigation and Digital Meetings

• The bill aims to simplify the processing of administrative offenses in the field of inland navigation for the authorities by combining data on holders of sports boat licenses at the federal level.
• The digital meetings, having proven successful beyond the pandemic, are being discussed by the Bundestag in the form of an amendment proposal by the coalition factions. Chairs of associations and foundations can convene meetings in a hybrid form, allowing for participation via audio and video transmission.

Evaluation and Future Developments

• The Germany ticket will be evaluated in 2023 and 2024. The bill includes a legal rollout schedule with binding targets by 2030, and the costs will be shared fairly between consumers and network operators.

These bills reflect the German federal government's commitment to streamlining various sectors, promoting digitalization, and encouraging climate-friendly mobility through initiatives like the Germany ticket.

Sports could be promoted through the simplification of administrative offenses in the field of inland navigation, as the bill aims to combine data on holders of sports boat licenses at the federal level. The attractive nature of public transport, including climate-friendly mobility options, could potentially be enhanced by the introduction of the Germany ticket, a nationwide public transportation pass, which will be valid for buses and trains throughout Germany in the entire local and regional transport network.

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