Joachim Spatz: “Parliamentary control over foreign and security issues is indispensable”

The Subcommittee on Civilian Crisis Prevention was created in the German Bundestag in March 2010. In an interview to the Parliamentarians Network Mr. Joachim Spatz, the head of the Subcommittee reflects upon the cooperation between national and European parliaments, the prospects for mainstreaming conflict prevention and the infighting between member states and Community institutions in terms of foreign and security policy.

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"The creation of the Subcommittee on Civilian Crisis Prevention is the result of persistent attempts of the German civil society, political parties and NGOs to incorporate crisis prevention into the Bundestag. The Subcommittee has been created within the Committee on Foreign Affairs and deals with civilian crisis management. The Subcommittee will especially focus on giving strategic recommendations on the countries where crisis management measures are needed urgently. The creation of the Subcommittee on the Civil Crisis Prevention generated interest in some other national parliaments of the EU member states. We are poised to intensify the contacts between MPs all across Europe engaged in the conflict prevention to enhance our activities. Regarding the popular debates on the necessity to increase the parliamentarians leverage over the foreign policy, I strongly believe that the parliamentary control over foreign and security issues is indispensable. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2001 that any decision regarding deployment of the armed forces must be taken in a transparent way by a legitimate democratic body, namely the German Bundestag. Consequently the German Bundestag has quite extensive competences regarding security matters.

Similarly, when it comes to the European Common Foreign and Security Policy (EFSP), we also need to create an assembly to review the EFSP decisions because this area of the EU’s policy largely remains out of reach of the European Parliament. It’s still largely controlled by the European Council and the Council of Ministers.

The Subcommitee on the Civil Crisis Prevention is keeping an eye on the developments in the new European External Action Service. We plan to travel to Brussels to meet the members of the EEAS staff responsible for the Crisis Prevention as long as this unit is created. I think the EEAS can enhance the Union’s ability to act cohesively in the external dimension as long as the High Representative is given all the necessary power.

There are concerns that at the time of the financial crisis governments are cutting costs and subsequently the funding of some policy initiatives will decrease. We hope, however, to avoid cuts because the preventive diplomacy budget has increased in Germany over the past few years. Moreover, given the importance of the Crisis Prevention initiative, we are determined to do our best to ensure a proper funding”.