Ideas on nutrition not implemented before election
The recommendations of the German Citizens' Assembly on Nutrition will not be implemented for the time being. This became clear when the Bundestag Committee on Food and Agriculture presented a progress report to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas on 11 February 2025.
‘The Committee on Nutrition has discussed the recommendations of the Citizens‘ Assembly on several occasions,’ said Hermann Färber (CDU/CSU), Chairman of the Committee on Nutrition and Agriculture, at the handover. ‘I visited the Citizens‘ Assembly on Food and was able to see how committed and passionate the Citizens’ Assembly was in its work.’
Bundestag President wants more citizens' assemblies
Bärbel Bas expressed her thanks and emphasised that the Citizens' Assembly had been worthwhile “simply because it has motivated citizens to get involved in politics and work together”. Although the mini-public was controversial in terms of nutrition, the President of the Bundestag would like to see more Citizens’ Assemblies in the coming legislative period. ‘I hope that the progress report will not disappear into the desk drawer, but that the next committee will continue to deal with the Citizens' Assembly's recommendations. This was no longer possible due to the premature end of the legislative period,’ said Bas.
‘The Citizens' Assembly was a good opportunity to get involved. It was interesting just to understand how democracy works, how political processes work and how majorities are formed,‘ said Ingeborg Simon, a member of the Citizens’ Assembly from Dortmund, at the handover. However, she is not satisfied with what has happened with the recommendations so far. She would have liked at least one of the recommendations to be implemented. It is also unclear what will happen next: ‘What will happen to the recommendations in the coming legislative period is written in the stars.’
‘No majority in favour of a vote beyond acknowledgement’
Hermann Färber was thoughtful. ‘Due to the premature end of the legislative period, it was no longer possible for the committee to deal with the further recommendations. There was no majority in favour of a vote by the committee that went beyond a mere acknowledgement,’ he wrote in the progress report. However, the recommendations drawn up by the Citizens' Assembly would raise numerous legal issues and questions regarding practical implementation. Clarifying these issues is one of the tasks of the German Bundestag.
According to Färber, all of the recommendations would be suitable as a basis for further debates on the issues raised by the Citizens' Assembly. Among other things, the Citizens' Assembly has shown that more comprehensive consumer information is desirable and that more measures should be taken against food waste. Above all, however, the Citizens' Assembly had achieved that the topics of “nutrition” and “agriculture” had once again ’moved much more into the consciousness of politics and society. That alone deserves recognition,’ says Färber.
Whether a majority could have been found across parliamentary groups in favour of pursuing one or other of the recommendations remains pure speculation. ‘Sometimes I would have wished that the agreement between the parliamentary groups on how to proceed had been reached a little more quickly,’ writes Färber. However, the 21st German Bundestag is free to take up the citizens' report or individual recommendations again.
Citizens' interests must be given greater prominence
The outgoing Vice Presidents of the Bundestag, Yvonne Magwas (CDU) and Petra Pau (Left Party), would like to see the interests of citizens more strongly represented in parliament in the coming legislative period. Although there was a Citizens' Assembly in this legislative period, the recommendations from the population were not really incorporated into the legislative process, lamented Pau after the last Bundestag debate of the legislative period 2021 - 2025.
She found it wrong that this Bundestag did not ‘seriously consider the recommendations’, said Pau, who, like her colleague Magwas, will not be running for the Bundestag again. The citizens affected had ‘invested a lot of time’ in thinking about solutions to the problems. Many are therefore disappointed.
Magwas also sees a need to catch up here. ‘We had a Citizens' Assembly in this legislative period. We would have liked to have had more,’ she said. That was not possible. There also needs to be a discussion on how to deal with the results of the mini-publics, said Magwas. However, she argued in favour of retaining the instrument of citizens' assemblies.
Motion from SPD and Greens
The SPD and the Greens want the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly “Nutrition in Transition” to continue to serve as important guidelines for future food policy beyond the current legislative period. ‘To this end, we have launched the joint motion ‘Dealing with the Citizens’ Assembly‘ with concrete proposals for further work,’ explained food policy experts Susanne Mittag (SPD) and Renate Künast (Greens) in a joint press release on 11 February 2025. The Bundestag must take the Citizens' Assembly's proposals seriously. ‘We also want to discuss the recommendations in parliament in the coming legislative period. We have made this clear in detail with the joint motion.’
From the outset, the CDU/CSU and FDP parliamentary groups had shown little acceptance for the work of the Citizens' Assembly, which had made it difficult to implement the recommendations. ‘Now, even towards the end, they expressly did not want it to be discussed in the plenary of the Bundestag. The prevention of a plenary debate by the CDU, CSU and FDP expresses a lack of respect for the work of the members of the Citizens‘ Assembly and their proposals,’ criticise the Social Democrats and Greens.
Support from population
There had been broad public support for the Citizens' Assembly “Nutrition in Transition”. In a survey conducted in 2024, four fifths of respondents considered the establishment of the mini-public to be a “very good” or “fairly good” idea. 85 per cent were in favour of the Bundestag convening Citizens’ Assemblies on other topics in future.
The survey, conducted by the opinion research and consulting institute Verian, was part of the scientific monitoring of the Citizens' Assembly by the Institute for Democracy and Participation Research (IDPF) at the University of Wuppertal. IDPF and Verian presented the resulting evaluation report in July 2024.
Most important recommendations
On 10 May 2023, the members of the German Bundestag decided to set up the first Citizens' Assembly commissioned by Parliament. The mini-public began its work on 29 September 2023. After nine meetings, the members of the Citizens' Assembly submitted their recommendations to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas and the parliamentary groups on 20 February 2024.
The most important demand of the Citizens' Assembly “Nutrition in Transition” is a free lunch for all children in schools and kindergartens. It also calls for a state label for climate, animal welfare and health and a reform of food taxation, among other things.
Debate in parliament
Following the presentation of the Citizens‘ Assembly's report to the President of the Bundestag and the parliamentary groups, the first debate took place in the plenary session of the German Bundestag on 14 March 2024. The citizens' report was then referred to the Committee on Food and Agriculture and, in a consultative capacity, to the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the Committee on Health and the Committee on Climate Action and Energy.
The Committee on Food and Agriculture, with the participation of members of the Citizens' Assembly, held four expert discussions on the recommendations regarding free lunches in kindergartens and schools, an age limit for energy drinks, “passing on food that is still edible” and the recommendation “Conscious shopping made easy through mandatory state labelling”.