Shortly before the summer break and the end of the electoral term, parliament is plowing through a flood of bills. There are innovations in contract terms, insect protection and the rent index.
Only after more than 17 hours did the Bundestag end its session at 2:30 a.m. on Friday night. It was 18 minutes longer than the longest session of this legislative period in June 2019. Important decisions:
CRIMINAL PROCESS RULES: In the case of the most serious crimes such as murder, genocide or war crimes, suspects can be tried a second time in the future if new evidence emerges. The Bundestag passed this amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure. Because of the prohibition of the so-called double punishment, nobody should actually be held responsible for the same offense more than once. The list of “reasons for reopening” has now been expanded to include serious crimes that cannot be statute-barred. These include murder, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against a person.
OFFENSE: Inciting insults against Jews and Muslims as well as against homosexuals and the disabled are punished more severely. So far, degrading letters or emails have not been considered incitement to the masses because they are not publicly disseminated – this legal loophole has now been closed.
CHILD ABUSE: The package also makes the distribution and possession of instructions on child sexual abuse a criminal offense. Anyone who downloads the texts from the Internet or from closed chat groups can expect prison sentences of up to two years, for their dissemination even threatening three years in prison.
STALKING: Anyone who regularly ambushes another person or harasses them repeatedly should end up in court more quickly in the future. In order to be able to pursue so-called stalking more consistently, the Bundestag has lowered the criminal liability threshold. Until now, the perpetrators had to be shown to have “persistent” post-production behavior that “seriously” affected the victim’s life. In the future, it will be sufficient to harass someone “repeatedly” and thereby “not insignificantly” to affect their life. The sentence is also being tightened: while a maximum of three years ‘imprisonment could previously be imposed for stalking, in particularly serious cases up to five years’ imprisonment will be possible in the future
CONTRACT PERIOD: The contract periods for mobile phone tariffs, streaming services or fitness studios are limited by law in order to make it easier to switch to another provider. The Bundestag passed a corresponding law early on Friday morning, which should also make it easier for consumers to terminate their contracts. In future, contracts will generally only be allowed to run for one year. Longer terms of up to two years are only permitted if the customer also receives an offer for a one-year contract that is a maximum of 25 percent more expensive on a monthly average.
TRAVEL RESTRICTION: Corona-related entry restrictions may continue to apply, even if the national pandemic expires. On March 25, 2020, the MPs identified an “epidemic situation” for the first time and last extended it until the end of September at the latest. It gives the federal government the right to issue ordinances directly without the consent of the Federal Council – for example on tests, vaccinations, occupational safety or entry. The regulation that has now been adopted, however, only concerns entry restrictions, which should still be able to apply without this legal basis – even if only for a maximum of one year after the situation has been lifted.
RENT LEVEL: Cities and municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants will have to create a rent level in the future. This is intended to better protect tenants from excessive rent increases. In more than 80 of the 200 largest German cities, there is currently no valid rent index, said the legal policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner. Without the rent index, the rent brake would be “factually ineffective”. Rent indexes are used to determine the local comparative rent.
INSECT PROTECTION: To protect insects, the use of pesticides in agriculture is to be further reduced. This is provided for in a law by Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), which the Bundestag passed on Thursday evening. Among other things, more areas such as meadows with scattered fruit trees or species-rich pastures are to be placed under special protection. In many protected areas, the use of chemicals that are harmful to insects, such as wood preservatives, should be restricted.
ILLEGAL INTERNET BUSINESS: The Internet trade in weapons, drugs and child pornography should be punished more consistently. The operator of a criminal trading platform faces up to ten years in prison in the future. Operators have already been guilty of aiding and abetting if their online marketplaces were used for illegal business. However, if they could not be proven to be aware of the specific goods being traded, they usually remained unmolested.
FEDERAL ARMY DEPLOYMENT: The Bundeswehr remains stationed in Kosovo and off the Lebanese coast. The Bundestag extended the mandates for the two missions abroad. As part of the NATO KFOR mission, up to 400 German forces can still be sent to Kosovo. The UNIFIL mission of the United Nations aims to prevent up to 300 German soldiers from smuggling arms into Lebanon.
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