Merkel's corona protocols soon to be public?
Chancellery wants to review verdict first
Created: 07/05/2022 17:53
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) puts on her mask after a press statement.
Internal minutes of Corona conferences could now become public (archive image, March 2021).
© picture alliance/dpa/AP POOL |
Markus Schreiber
The recordings of the Corona conferences must be made public, according to a judgment from Berlin.
The Federal Chancellery is still examining the decision - are Merkel's minutes kept under lock and key?
Berlin – The results of the Corona summit had been eagerly awaited by citizens in 2020.
Ultimately, it was about sometimes far-reaching encroachments on fundamental rights and concrete effects in everyday life such as lockdowns, mask requirements or the duration of quarantine.
However, the deliberations took place behind closed doors.
The Berlin Administrative Court has now ruled that the Federal Chancellery must make the internal minutes of the federal-state conferences in the corona pandemic public.
But the last word on the matter has not yet been spoken.
Judgment by the Berlin Administrative Court: the Federal Chancellery must publish minutes of Corona conferences
The
Tagesspiegel
sued at the end of 2020 after the federal government had denied the newspaper access to the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
The government had classified the documents as confidential and referred to the "protection of official consultations".
A publication could affect a future free and open exchange of opinions, so the reasoning.
The judgment of the Berlin Administrative Court contradicted this.
Advice to the authorities falls under the Information Protection Act.
However, only the actual process of official decision-making as such is protected, not the results and bases of the decision, the reasoning for the judgment said.
In addition, the Federal Government had not explained a specific threat to the course of the consultation or future consultations in a comprehensible manner.
Accordingly, the Federal Chancellery must publish the minutes of Corona conferences.
Specifically, it is about the recordings of five meetings in 2020 at the time of the first lockdown due to the corona virus.
Corona summit documents: the Federal Chancellery examines the judgment of the Berlin Administrative Court
The Federal Chancellery does not seem to want to follow the court's view directly.
The Chancellery has not yet decided whether to accept the verdict, it said on Tuesday.
A government spokesman said the written justification from the Berlin administrative court was not yet available.
"As soon as these are available, we will first carefully evaluate them." According to a court spokeswoman for the German Press Agency, an appeal against the decision to the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court can be requested.
The federal government has one month to do this after the judgment has been served.
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Both Angela Merkel (CDU) and her successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) were in favor of keeping the protocols secret.
In its arguments before the court, the government stated that it feared “public pressure to justify” and thus an impairment of decision-making.
With "appropriate reporting", the publication could create a "new and unwanted dynamic".
Participants in discussions about corona protection measures might be inhibited from making new suggestions, it said.
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The
Tagesspiegel
already considers the minutes of the Corona summit from the early days of the pandemic to be historical documents, as the newspaper explained on Thursday.
Because with the spread of vaccines, a new phase has begun, so the argument goes.
In addition, there is a "considerable public interest" in the positions taken by the heads of government in the negotiations at the time.
The corona pandemic is far from over.
The current government should also have a lot to discuss, in Schleswig-Holstein, for example, the first clinics have already declared a corona emergency.
