Anuscheh Farahat and Kay Hailbronner or incomplete submission of information essential for the adoption of the administrative act. The law now explicitly provides that withdrawal is not excluded by the fact that the affected person may become stateless as a result of losing German nationality. There is, however, a time limit according to Section 35 para. 3 of five years. If the withdrawal of the naturalisation or the permit to maintain German nationality has legal effects upon the legality of administrative acts based upon the nationality law relating to third persons, the nationality authorities have to pass a discretionary decision on the withdrawal or non-withdrawal of such administrative decisions. Relevant aspects are a possible participation of a third person in the wilful deceit, threat or corruption or in the intentionally incorrect or incomplete information. These aspects have to be balanced with legitimate concerns of the third person, in particular the legitimate interests of children. An additional provision introduced a new criminal sanction for persons providing incorrect or incomplete information of essential importance for a naturalisation procedure or persons using such information to gain naturalisation for themselves or for other persons. 2.6. The 2014 reform of the ‘option duty’ The constant debate over dual nationality and the legality of the ‘optional model’ finally led the grand coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the two Christian Democratic Parties (CDU/CSU) to ease the ‘option duty’ to a significant degree and to exempt a vast majority of ius soli children. According to the coalition agreement, the duty to opt between German and a foreign nationality should be abolished for children, who were ‘brought up’ in Germany by foreign parents; multiple nationalities would thereby be accepted for ius soli children. However, soon after the new government had taken office, disputes arose between the coalition parties over the meaning of ‘born and raised in Germany’. While Social Democrats favoured abolition of the ‘optional model’ and acceptance of multiple nationalities for the ius soli children, Christian Democrats and Christian Socialists argued that only those children who demonstrate a particular link to German society may retain German and another nationality. In summer 2014 the coalition finally reached a compromise. According to the new law, the ‘option duty’ will be waived for children of immigrants born in Germany who have either eight years of residence before turning 21, or have attended a German school for at least six years. The eight-year residence requirement for the parents remains intact. Also the requirements for ius soli-children were changed and slightly adapted to the requirements of children with ‘option duty’. The new law came into force on 20 December 2014.43 The new bill improved the situation of the vast majority of ius soli ‘children’ in Germany. An estimated number of 40,000 young Germans per year could benefit from the new regulation as from 2018. However, the bill falls short of the historical move towards full acknowledgment of dual citizenship and retains the ‘option duty’ as a general principle. Apart from this amendment, only minor changes have taken place in recent years, mostly concerning technical issues and editorial corrections. 43 Regarding the contents of the 2014 law, see chapter 3.1. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/5 - © 2020 Author(s) 15