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Berlin (dpa) - Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) wants to stabilize the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) and eliminate uncertainties after a court ruling.

Legal changes are planned for this, as can be seen from a draft.

Accordingly, a reorganization of the structure of the chamber representation at federal level is planned.

Specifically, a German Chamber of Industry and Commerce is to be set up by converting the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) into a corporation under public law.

This means that this federal chamber will in future be subject to legal supervision by the Federal Ministry of Economics.

In the future, the ministry will be able to check whether the DIHK is operating within its competencies.

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In addition, statutory membership of all chambers of industry and commerce in the Federal Chamber is planned.

There should be a transition phase of four years, as can be seen from the draft amendment to the law on the provisional regulation of the law of chambers of industry and commerce.

The draft was submitted to the German Press Agency.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ordered the IHK North Westphalia to leave the DIHK after years of dispute.

According to the court, the reason for this was statements made by the umbrella organization outside of its area of ​​competence on general political issues as well as one-sided questions of environmental and climate policy.

An entrepreneur from the wind energy industry from Münster, who is himself a member of the IHK North Westphalia, took legal action.

According to the Federal Association for Free Chambers, five members in the IHK districts of Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Bielefeld and Kassel have initiated urgent proceedings to force these IHKs to leave the DIHK.

There are 79 chambers of industry and commerce in Germany.

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The draft law states that with the withdrawal of the IHK North Westphalia the completeness of the activities of the DIHK eV is no longer given at the federal level.

If further terminations followed, the representation of the general interests of the IHKs at national, European and international level by the DIHK is more possible.

The financing of the DIHK is also no longer guaranteed.

The interests of the approximately 4 million chamber members could then no longer be represented in their entirety at the federal or international level.

This is "but indispensable in terms of economic policy".

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday: "With the draft law amending the IHK law, we want to quickly ensure legal certainty after the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court."

Statements on climate protection, human rights or Brexit that were not covered by the previous law would thus be possible in the future.

The aim of the change in law is to maintain an umbrella association of the IHKs, as a single point of contact at the federal level and as a representative of the interests of German medium-sized companies at the European level.

The DIHK said on Tuesday that the aim of eliminating legal uncertainties and contradictions with clear rules was in the interests of all those involved: the IHK member companies as well as the voluntary entrepreneurs in the IHKs and the DIHK.

This gives the entire chamber organization and its 3.6 member companies the stability they need in the currently difficult phase.

After the ruling, the DIHK announced that it would initially no longer express itself in public, regardless of the reason.

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FDP parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer said: "The chambers of industry and commerce need a strong voice in Berlin and Brussels in the future too."

The court rulings had created an uncertainty that made a new regulation necessary.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201215-99-700697 / 3