Germany fixes flawed national service rules after approval confusion
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has expressed optimism about the initial response rate to questionnaires sent to young men and women as part of the new national service system. "At this point, I am satisfied," Pistorius told the Rheinische Post (Saturday edition), "but we must ensure we are not looking at a snapshot in time. Instead, we need reliable data to establish a clear trend."
The questionnaires were distributed starting in January, with recipients given four weeks to respond, the minister explained. "This means we still need some time before we can present solid figures. Once we have them, we will share them with the public—doing so earlier would not make sense," he said, adding that this was likely to happen over the course of the summer.
Pistorius acknowledged a mistake in the initial regulations governing the new national service, which included provisions for approving extended stays abroad. "This was a technical error. That rule should never have been in the law," the SPD politician admitted. "This oversight went unnoticed from the start of the legislative process—by my office, the cabinet, parliament, and even the media, which only caught it later."
"When such an error occurs, the priority is to clarify the situation as quickly as possible: We addressed it through a directive and a general order. But yes, this rule caused unnecessary confusion," Pistorius conceded.
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