On the ini­tia­tive of FRFG, mem­bers of par­lia­ment from the CDU, SPD, FDP and Green Par­ty draft­ed a cross-par­ty motion to enshrine inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice in the Ger­man constitution.

Jens Spahn (CDU), Peter Friedrich (SPD), Anna Lührmann (Green Par­ty) and Michael Kauch (FDP) for­mu­lat­ed a joint pro­pos­al in sev­er­al meet­ings, mod­er­at­ed by the FRFG. The FRFG also con­vened renowned con­sti­tu­tion­al lawyers to help in pro­ceed­ings. The pro­pos­al, pre­sent­ed on 14 July 2006, called for the state to be assigned a new func­tion in arti­cle 20b of the Basic Law (the Ger­man con­sti­tu­tion): “The state must observe the prin­ci­ple of sus­tain­abil­i­ty in its actions and pro­tect the inter­ests of future generations”.

Arti­cle 109(2) was also reworked to lim­it bor­row­ing by fed­er­al and state gov­ern­ments. It read: “Fed­er­al and state gov­ern­ments must take into account the macro­eco­nom­ic bal­ance, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and the inter­ests of future gen­er­a­tions in their bud­getary plan­ning”. The FRFG pressed for a more far-reach­ing solu­tion but the rep­re­sen­ta­tives could not agree one.

The bill was sub­mit­ted to the Bun­destag on 22 Novem­ber 2006 by 104 mem­bers of par­lia­ment of all age groups and from four par­ties. Almost a year lat­er, on 11 Octo­ber 2007, the motion was debat­ed in the ple­nary ses­sion of the Ger­man Bun­destag and was sub­se­quent­ly referred to the Legal Affairs Com­mit­tee for fur­ther delib­er­a­tion and delayed for fur­ther dis­cus­sion. It was ulti­mate­ly not adopted.

The Par­lia­men­tary Advi­so­ry Coun­cil for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment final­ly took a lead and in Octo­ber 2008 con­vened an expert hear­ing at which Dr. Dr. Jörg Trem­mel of the FRFG was also present.

Fol­low­ing the bank­ing and finan­cial cri­sis in 2009 and their var­i­ous stim­u­lus pack­ages, the foun­da­tion urged that the mem­bers make agree­ment con­di­tion­al on a debt brake being intro­duced into the Basic Law that went beyond what had been dis­cussed in 2006. The debt brake was enshrined in the con­sti­tu­tion in spring 2009.