The Federal Constitutional Court has dismissed the constitutional complaint filed by former CDU Member of the Bundestag Thomas Heilmann concerning the legislative process of the so-called heating law passed by the Ampel coalition in 2023.
The judges in Karlsruhe announced on Thursday that the application in the constitutional dispute proceedings was inadmissible. They ruled that the applicant had not sufficiently justified his entitlement to bring the case. Specifically, he failed to adequately demonstrate that the way the Building Energy Act amendment was legislated could have violated his right to participate in parliamentary decision-making.
Heilmann had claimed his rights were infringed because he felt the process was flawed. He criticized that no clear draft law was presented before the final deliberation and that the plenary debate occurred without further committee consultation.
In an emergency proceeding, the court had previously banned the Bundestag from conducting the second and third readings during the current session week. However, in this main procedure, the court now determined that the design of the legislative process did not violate constitutional requirements.
Heilmann had argued that the procedure obstructed parliamentary decision-making. The Court, however, found no evidence that the Bundestag could have violated its rights through the structure of the process. The Senate’s decision was unanimous.
