Sustainability and Parliaments: Survey and Perspectives RIO +20

Background, central aspects of the popic
Following the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, a great variety of activities were initiated in politics and society all over the world. In the process, it became clear that the political perception and realisation of the goal of sustainability pose a challenge to governments and parliament.
The politics of sustainability has provided new momentum for the long-term orientation of politics and the formulation of corresponding goals in all countries. Awareness of long-term and interdepartmental policy formulation has been sharpened and has led to new forms of "governance". A report presented by TAB in 2003 (TAB working report no. 86) confirmed that both the initiative and the further development of sustainability policy are essentially carried by the executive. The role of parliament, in contrast, seems to lie in accompanying and supporting the policy of sustainability. Its role as a forum for public consultation and as a body supervising the executive probably does not exhaust the potential of parliament, however.

Taking the previous TAB report and the survey presented at the time as a starting point, a comprehensive evaluation is made. Both an overall review and some country studies are planned, the latter as examples that analyse in depth how the parliaments in other countries have initiated institutional innovation and learning processes. These should then be examined with regard to whether they can be transferred to the structures and procedures of the German Bundestag. Finally a set of measures that must be appropriate to strenghten the role of parliament will be indentified.