Participants too chatty
Secret rounds should become more secret
March 20, 2024, 10:06 a.m
Confidentiality in special meetings of the Defense Committee is not far off. Chairwoman Strack-Zimmermann is now reacting and wants to send a number of employees out of the ministries when secret matters are discussed.
The chairwoman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, wants to reduce the number of participants at certain meetings in order to reduce the risk of confidential information being passed on from the committee. The FDP politician announced talks on Deutschlandfunk.
The ministries should withdraw employees they have sent when secret matters are discussed. “We will make the suggestion. It will not cause any joy,” said Strack-Zimmermann. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius from the SPD has already told her that he wants to do this. The committee itself could also make suggestions to ask some of the employees to leave the room when discussing secret topics. They want to talk to the chairmen in the committee about the procedure.
After the secret meeting of the Defense Committee on Monday last week, information about the Taurus cruise missile was made public. 105 people took part in the meeting. Bundestag President Bärbel Bas expressed surprise that Strack-Zimmermann had allowed this.
Crash with Bas
The Liberals pointed out that the committee has 38 full members, and depending on the topic, some of their deputies are also there. Two thirds, however, come from ministries, the Chancellery, the Federal President’s Office, secret services and state representations of the federal states. That is documented law. She couldn’t say there were too many there. “I can’t do that, the President of the Bundestag knows that very well,” emphasized Strack-Zimmermann.
Nevertheless, it must be clear to everyone that if they report from such a meeting, they could be prosecuted, warned Strack-Zimmermann. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, she has observed a “casuality” on the part of some people to still report from the committee.