Constitutional Court halts German government's controversial heating law

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) – Germany's Constitutional Court halted the passage of the country's controversial heating law, scheduled for Friday, in emergency proceedings on Wednesday night.

The second and third readings of the law, which has a heavy emphasis on renewable energy, may not be held during the current session week, Germany's highest court in Karlsruhe announced.

Thomas Heilmann, a parliamentarian from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, had applied for a temporary injunction. This was to prohibit the Bundestag, German parliament, from final deliberation and voting on the bill if it was not presented to MPs in writing at least 14 days in advance.

Heilmann had argued that his rights as a member of parliament had been significantly violated by the legislative process. Because of the maximum shortened deliberations on the amendment to the Building Energy Act (GEG) in parliament, it was not possible to point out and change any conceptual weaknesses in the legislative package.

In this regard, the court now stated that Heilmann's application on the merits in the dispute proceedings did not appear to be inadmissible from the outset or manifestly unfounded in view of his right to equal participation in parliamentary decision-making under Article 38 of the Constitution.

According to the court, the weighing of consequences leads to the result "that the reasons speaking in favor of the issuance of a temporary injunction prevail." The interest in avoiding an irreversible violation of participation rights outweighs the encroachment on the procedural autonomy of the Bundestag, which merely delays the legislative procedure.

For weeks, the coalition government of Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals from the Free Democratic Party (FDP) had argued the heating law of Economics Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz of the SPD. The FDP in particular had reservations.

Accordingly, CDU faction leader Friedrich Merz commented on the halt to the vote as a "heavy defeat for Olaf Scholz's federal government."

The so-called heating law stipulates that in the future, only heating systems that can be operated with at least 65% renewable energies in the long term may be newly installed in Germany.

The regulations are to apply from 2024 and for the time being only directly affect newly built areas. In such areas, a high proportion of more climate-friendly heat pumps are already being installed.

The law is being criticized from various sides. Environmental associations warn that the law will not achieve the climate protection targets in the heating sector. In addition, they say it is too complicated.

The environmental protection organization Germanwatch told public broadcaster ARD that the law would not result in major emissions reductions until the end of the current decade. This would mean that the German climate targets of 2030, 2040 and 2045 would not be achieved.

There is also criticism that it is not clear how the financial burdens of the law will be distributed. Economist Veronika Grimm told ARD that while "immense sums" have been promised by the state, climate targets cannot be bought with government money.

The promise to relieve everyone in such a way "that it no longer hurts so much, that will not be possible to keep for long," she added.