Report on Citizenship Law: Germany issues and questions of homogeneity and identity. This explains why naturalisation and toleration of dual nationality have been very closely connected to a general debate on the right concept for the integration of foreigners into German society. While the more conservative parties have maintained that integration cannot be equivalent to a toleration of split loyalties and multiculturalism, the Social Democratic Party and the Greens have very much promoted the idea of a ‘republican concept’ of nationality, requiring the ‘members of the club’ to comply with the laws and to respect the basic principles of the Constitution as the only prerequisites for acquisition of nationality. The debate regarding the term Leitkultur (guiding culture) has indicated that German society is divided as to what the right concept for the integration of foreigners is. This explains also why German nationality issues have frequently played a dominant role in federal and state elections. The repeated attempts of the Social Democratic Party to reach an informal agreement between the major political parties about leaving controversial issues of nationality law out of the electoral campaigns were therefore never much more than rhetorical. Due to the exclusive power of the Federation, the Länder as single entities do not have a substantial role to play in the legislative process. The Basic Law distinguishes between laws requiring the consent of the Bundesrat as the representatives of the Länder, and those laws against which the Bundesrat may enter an objection within a certain period, which, however, may be overridden by the Bundestag. Nationality law as a rule falls into the category of those laws requiring the consent of the Bundesrat. While nationality law as such falls under the exclusive competence of the Federation, the Länder have the power to execute federal laws in their own right and may regulate the establishment of the authorities and the administrative procedures if federal laws enacted with the consent of the Bundesrat do not otherwise provide. Since nationality law generally requires administrative regulations, any substantial reform of nationality law will usually be dependent upon the consent of the Bundesrat. The history of the Federal Republic has shown that the distribution of political power in federal and state elections does not follow the same pattern. Frequently, in state elections voters decide upon a different political composition of the state government in order to achieve a certain distribution of power between the Federation and the Länder. This means that in order to pass laws the federal government needs to achieve a consensus amongst the opposition parties representing the majority of the state governments in the Bundesrat. To achieve the necessary consent of the Bundesrat for nationality laws it has generally been necessary to seek a compromise between the major political parties or to persuade some governments of the Länder so that a majority in the Bundesrat can be achieved. As regards the passing of nationality laws, the legislative procedure follows the general pattern of a politically controversial law. Generally, the federal government or a state will introduce a bill in the Bundestag which shall first be submitted to the Bundesrat. If no agreement can be reached, the Bundesrat will demand that a committee for joint consideration of bills, composed of members of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, be convened. This was the case with the nationality law in 1998/1999 when at first no compromise could be reached. Generally, the legislative process is also accompanied by a hearing of experts in the internal affairs committee. If the committee reaches an agreement and proposes an amendment to the adopted bill, the Bundestag will vote on it a second time followed by the consent of the Bundesrat. It is highly controversial to what extent constitutional provisions on the principle of democracy, of Article 3 (equal treatment), Article 16 and Article 116 (both on nationality) set constitutional limits to the legislative competences in nationality matters. Article 16 para. 1 of the Basic Law provides that no German may be deprived of his or her citizenship. Citizenship 30 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/5- © 2020 Author(s)