Expert comment window on federal draft laws provided by ministries is insufficient, says professional associations.
A new report by the groups Mehr Demokratie, Frag den Staat, and Green Legal Impact states that federal ministries are not giving experts from professional associations enough time to comment on their draft legislation. The study revealed that these experts were only given an average of 15.4 working days to review the proposed laws, while 20 working days would be needed for a thorough analysis. Some of the ministries have already committed to this larger timeframe.
The study further noted that in two-thirds of the cases, the experts were expected to provide their opinions within less than 20 working days, while 18% percent were given just 5 or even fewer days. This was condemned by Oliver Wiedmann from the non-profit organization Mehr Demokratie e.V. "Sometimes they're only given two days to review very extensive draft laws," he said.
One glaring example of this problem involved the Climate Protection Act. "It was sent out on a Thursday at 6:28 pm with a deadline of 10 am on Monday," argued Marie Bohlmann from Green Legal Impact.
The unfair treatment of associations with less than two days was the case for half of the draft bills from the SPD-led Ministry of Construction and one-seventh of the draft bills from the Green-led Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. As a result, both of these ministries received poor rankings in the study.
On the other hand, the SPD-led Ministries of Health and Labour were only able to adhere to the 20-working-day deadline in under 16% and 13% of cases, respectively. The FDP-led Ministry of Justice performed best, achieving this in two-thirds of cases with an average of 23.3 days. [
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- To address this issue, some federal ministries have agreed to extend the time given to experts from professional associations to review draft laws to at least 20 working days, as stated in the report.
- The lack of sufficient time for experts to review and provide statements on draft laws can lead to inadequate analysis, as highlighted in the study by Mehr Demokratie, Frag den Staat, and Green Legal Impact.
- Draft laws should be thoroughly analyzed by experts from professional associations to ensure that they align with industry standards and best practices, as emphasized by the statement from professional associations critiquing the insufficient time given by federal ministries.
Source: www.ntv.de
