Relations and Kurdish Diaspora Committee meet with Germany's new Consul General Klemens Semtner

On 4 December members of Parliament's Relations and Kurdish Diaspora Committee, led by the chair Dr. Rebwar Babkayi (KDP), met with Germany's new Consul General Klemens Semtner, at the Consulate General in Erbil, and welcomed him in his new position.

The committee members thanked Germany for its support for the Peshmerga forces and commended the Bundestag's (Germany’s federal parliament) decision to extend German military forces' mandate in Iraq for training and assistance.

The MPs and Consul General Semtner discussed the KRG’s disagreements with Baghdad and the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region. The MPs called on the German Government to help resolve the disagreements and to ask the Iraqi Government to fulfill its financial obligations to the people of Kurdistan Region.

The MPs said that the Iraqi Parliament’s recent decision to include a clause extremely detrimental to Kurdistan Region when passing the Fiscal Deficit Coverage Law was unjust.

Developing relations between Kurdistan Parliament and Germany's Parliament was covered in the meeting. In March 2020, an open conference was held in the Bundestag on the Kurdish Question, organised by German MP Helin Evrim Sommer, at which Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami spoke and several Kurdistan Parliament MPs attended. 

Consul General Semtner said that Germany supports Kurdistan Region and will continue its projects here, and said that Parliament's scrutiny and monitoring of government is important.