Germany's Federal Constitutional Court dismissed a complaint by CDU lawmaker Thomas Heilmann challenging the accelerated legislative process behind the country's 2023 heating law, ruling unanimously on Wednesday that his rights as a parliamentarian were not violated.
Presiding judge Ann-Katrin Kaufhold said Heilmann had failed to demonstrate that the legislative process lacked an adequate basis for discussion, and the court rejected the notion that the constitution imposes a quantifiable speed limit on legislative deliberations. The main proceedings examined whether the Basic Law requires a minimum timeframe for passing legislation.
Heilmann had argued that lawmakers were presented with extensive amendments on the eve of debate when the coalition government rushed the Building Energy Act through parliament in 2023. An earlier emergency injunction won by Heilmann had temporarily halted the vote, delaying the law's passage until September 2023 and its entry into force until January 2024.