Published on: June 29, 2025 / update from: June 29, 2025 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein
Increasing confidentiality in the Bundestag: billions for the Bundeswehr-government coalition stops armaments reports! - Image: Xpert.digital
Parliamentary control under fire: the decision to suspend armaments reports
The controversial decision of the black and red government coalition
The new government coalition of the Union and SPD has made a far -reaching decision in the Bundestag budget committee, which causes considerable criticism in opposition parties and experts in security policy. The black and red majority decided to stop important reporting obligations in the field of defense and armor with immediate effect.
The controversial measure affects the latest armaments report as well as other defense -related reports, including the report of the Department of Defense to accelerate and optimize procurement in the Bundeswehr and that about the submission of material and equipment to the Bundeswehr to Ukraine. This decision was made against the votes of all opposition parties, including the AfD, the Greens and the Left Party.
Background of the parliamentary reporting obligations
The reports concerned are traditionally important instruments of parliamentary control. The defense ministry's armaments report usually focuses on essential armaments projects and serves the dialogue between the Ministry and Parliament. This regular reporting enables MPs to pursue developments in the defense area and to exercise their control function.
The parliamentary system of the Federal Republic of Germany is based on the principle of the parliamentary army, according to which the Bundeswehr is subject to democratic control by the Bundestag. This control not only includes budget sovereignty, but also comprehensive information rights on the activities of the armed forces and their procurement. The budget committee acts as a kind of top auditor in the Federal Government in Parliament and has the right to be informed about all defense investments that exceed 25 million euros.
The new financial architecture of the defense
The coalition's decision is made in a special political context. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, Germany initiated a comprehensive security policy realignment, which is referred to as the “turning point”. This includes massive investments in the Bundeswehr, financed by a 100-billion euro special assets and continuously increasing defense budgets.
According to the current plans from around 52 billion euros, the defense budget is expected to increase to 62.43 billion euros in 2025 in 2024. For the year 2025, a total of more than 86 billion euros are planned for the Bundeswehr if the funds from the special fund are added. The key values for the coming years provide for further drastic increases: in 2026 to 82.69 billion, in 2027 to 93.35 billion, in 2028 to 136.48 billion and in 2029 to EUR 152.83 billion.
These enormous increases in expenditure are made possible by changing the Basic Law, which will take out defense spending from the rules of the debt brake. Minister Boris Pistorius formulated this new priorities with the words: "The threat situation goes before the cash register situation".
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Criticism of the opposition and transparency concerns
The opposition criticizes the suspension of reporting obligations as an attack on parliamentary control. Sebastian Schäfer, budgetary spokesman for the Green Group, summed up the criticism: “In the defense budget, there is no longer a limit for the expenditure due to the changes to the Basic Law. At the same time, all reports are to be abolished. What the coalition operates here is not a reduction in bureaucracy, but a massive breakdown of parliamentary control.
The critics of the decision seem particularly problematic to the critics. It was originally agreed to treat the question of reports to be deleted only in the next committee meeting in order to enable a factual debate about the need for individual reporting obligations. Instead, the black and red coalition surprisingly presented its application on Wednesday afternoon and implemented it against the opposition's resistance.
Dietmar Bartsch, a budgetary spokesman for the left faction, described this procedure as “very, very unusual” and criticized that the opposition wishes were not accepted by the new coalition. The opposition consciously sees itself in the unclear and complains about the lack of a factual debate on the meaning and necessity of individual reporting obligations.
Problems with arms procurement
The reporting obligations are suspended at a time when the Bundeswehr has significant problems with the procurement of equipment and weapons. Studies show that all reforms to improve procurement have largely failed since the “turn of the times”. Experts criticize that between 35 and 45 billion euros of the special fund could be lost in inefficient procurement.
Concrete examples of procurement problems are increasing: Only 58,850 of the planned 72,200 clothing rates were delivered in the fighting clothing, only 81,000 out of 105,000 planned units were in protective vests and splinter protection underwear, and only 62,684 instead of the ordered 82,596 helmets arrived at the Bundeswehr. These problems are explained by bankruptcies with suppliers, unusually high sick leave and quality problems.
A particularly spectacular case concerned the new digital radio devices from Rohde & Schwarz worth 1.3 billion euros, some of which do not fit into the vehicle types of the Bundeswehr and for which the battery power for radio operation is not sufficient. Such breakdowns raise fundamental questions about the coordination and efficiency of the procurement processes.
Defense Minister Pistorius under pressure
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who was the only minister of the previous traffic light coalition in the new cabinet Merz, is increasingly under pressure. Although he initially achieved high popularity values in surveys and was considered the “most popular politician in Germany”, the criticisms of his management increase.
Pistorius, who has been Minister of Defense since January 2023, had vehemently campaigned for the Bundeswehr upgrading and expressed his regret about the unsatisfactory budget planning in an open letter. However, his efforts to modernize the Bundeswehr are overshadowed by the ongoing procurement problems.
Since taking office, the minister has been reluctant to look into the cards on the basis of concrete figures, which makes the current decision to suspend the reporting obligations in a special light. The armor reports, which are no longer to be presented, would normally have given detailed insights into the efficiency of the expenses under his responsibility.
International obligations and Ukraine aid
In parallel to the suspension of the reporting obligations, Germany has massively expanded its military support for Ukraine. Pistorius agreed to Ukraine with a visit to the Ukrainian Defense Minister of around five billion euros. These funds are to be used, among other things, to finance the production of far -reaching weapon systems in Ukraine.
Germany also delivers other air defense systems, ammunition, land weapons systems and hand weapons to Ukraine. The systems already delivered include more than 1,100 radar systems for soil monitoring and other Iris-T type. These extensive arms deliveries are made against the background of the intensified Russian attacks on the Ukrainian infrastructure.
However, the lack of reporting on the “Submission of Material and Device to the Bundeswehr to Ukraine” makes it more difficult for Parliament to see and assess the dimensions and effects of this support.
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Bureaucratic reduction or loss of power? Parliament loses an insight into defense spending
Structural challenges of parliamentary control
The decision of the black and red coalition raises fundamental questions about the future of parliamentary control in the defense area. Germany traditionally has a strong system of parliamentary surveillance of the armed forces with the military officer. The military officer acts as the aid body of the Bundestag in parliamentary control and is responsible for the protection of the fundamental rights of the soldiers.
The Basic Law grants the Bundestag special rights in the parliamentary control of the armed forces, including budget sovereignty and comprehensive information rights. This control should take place both preventively in the sense of prior influence as well as accompanying and subsequently. The suspension of important reporting obligations weakens these control mechanisms considerably.
Experts warn that the integration of the Bundeswehr into international structures already puts the parliamentary control mechanisms under pressure. The current decision to reduce reporting duties increases this tendency and could lead to further weakening of democratic control over the armed forces.
Arms export control and transparency
Another critical aspect of the reduced reporting obligations concerns the control of arms exports. In 2014, the Federal Constitutional Court decided in a pioneering judgment that the Federal Government is obliged to inform Bundestag MPs if the Federal Security Council approved a certain war weapon export business.
Under the leadership of the Greens, however, the Federal Ministry of Economics has already restricted the transparency of German war weapons exports. Despite the high volume of German war weapons exports, the Bundestag only reached eight letters with export decisions. The promise of more promptly reporting about arms exports were not met.
In its arms export report in 2023, the joint conference church and development (GKKE) criticizes that the federal government has made it back on the subject of transparency rather than progress. The organization calls on the Federal Government to present its annual arms export report again before the summer break, as was common under the previous grand coalition.
Bureaucracy reduction as a reason
The coalition of the Union and SPD justifies its approach with the aim of reducing bureaucracy. In fact, reducing bureaucracy is an important concern of the new federal government. The coalition agreement provides to develop a modernization agenda in 2025 and to start an immediate program to relieve citizens and companies.
Studies show that Germany, due to the excess of bureaucracy, misses up to 146 billion euros per year. Administrative digitization only progresses slowly, and around half of the companies give the digitization of the administration the school grade 5 or 6.
However, it is questionable whether the suspension of reports that serve parliamentary control can actually be described as a sensible reduction in bureaucracy. The reports concerned cause workload in the ministries, but fulfill an important democratic function. Your loss not only means less bureaucracy, but also less transparency and control.
Effects on budget consultations
The decision to suspend the reporting obligations has an immediate impact on budget consultations. The budget committee of the Bundestag usually has to agree to every arms order that exceeds 25 million euros. Without the corresponding reports, however, MPs lack important information for their decisions.
As early as December 2024, the budget committee approved armaments projects worth more than 20 billion euros. The approved projects included four other class 212 CD for 4.7 billion euros and various other projects for marine, army and air force. These decisions were made under the previous government and with complete reporting.
The new practice of reduced reporting obligations could affect the quality of parliamentary decisions. MPs have less information available to assess the need and efficiency of planned arms expenditure.
International comparisons and standards
In international comparison, Germany has relatively strong parliamentary control mechanisms for the armed forces. The main powers of the Bundestag is to approve or reject the use of German armed forces abroad. This authority goes back to a judgment of the 1994 Federal Constitutional Court.
However, suggestions have already been made to flexible the parliamentary authorization mechanisms in order to improve the participation of German armed forces in allied or European integrated military agreements. These initiatives have not yet been followed up, but they show that the trend is also attracted to a relaxation of parliamentary control in other areas.
The current decision to reduce the reporting obligations fits into this trend and could approach Germany to the control standards of other countries that traditionally have weaker parliamentary supervisory mechanisms.
Future prospects and possible consequences
The long -term effects of the suspension of armor reports are not yet completely foreseeable. The opposition has already announced that it will not accept this decision without a fight. It is possible that individual MPs or political groups will try to get the required information via other parliamentary instruments such as small and large inquiries.
The decision could also have an impact on the public debate on defense expenditure. Without regular reports on armaments projects and their progress, it becomes more difficult for media, experts and the public to assess the efficiency of massive investments in the Bundeswehr.
The lack of reporting on Ukraine aids could have a particularly critical effect. German support for Ukraine is an important element of foreign and security policy, and the public has a legitimate interest in being informed about the scope and type of this aid.
Reform needs in procurement
The problems of the Bundeswehr in procurement are not new, but have intensified by the “turning point” and the massive expenditure increases. The Bundeswehr procurement acceleration law adopted in 2022 should bring improvements, but practice continues to show significant defects.
The President of the Bundeswehr procurement office, Annette Lehnigk-Emden, accuses the armaments industry not to be ready to get her production up quickly enough. At the same time, she criticizes that industry has some stronger bureaucratic captivation than the Bundeswehr itself. These mutual blame between the ministry and industry illustrate the structural problems of the system.
Experts are calling for a fundamental reform of procurement. Frank Sauer from the Metis Institute for Strategy and Versalchau calls the system “crusted” and emphasizes that it urgently needs a reform. Without transparent reporting, however, it becomes more difficult to evaluate the need and success of such reforms.
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Democratic legitimation and trust
The suspension of the armor reports raises fundamental questions about the democratic legitimation of massive defense spending. In a parliamentary democracy, major state spending programs should be subject to continuous parliamentary control and public discussion.
The “turn of time” in German security policy was a reaction to changed threats, especially the Russian attack on Ukraine. This realignment had broad political and social support. However, this support can only be preserved permanently if the public remains informed about the use of the significant financial resources.
Trust in the efficiency of state expenditure is an important factor for democratic legitimation. Without transparent reporting on progress and problems with armaments projects, there is a risk that this trust erodes. The already recognizable procurement problems reinforce this danger.
The decision of the black and red coalition to suspend important reporting duties in the defense area is more than just an administrative measure for reducing bureaucracy. It affects fundamental questions of parliamentary democracy, the separation of powers and the control of state power. The long -term effects of this decision will depend significantly on whether alternative mechanisms of transparency and control can be developed or whether it leads to a permanent weakening of democratic supervision over one of the most important areas of state activity.
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