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GV INTERIOR Bundestag in session
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SV Members talking
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SV Speaker announces result of vote, CUTAWAY TO Brand listening (2 shots)
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Initials BB/0436 WLW/AS/BB/0450



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: West Germany's lower parliament, the Bundestag, approved Chancellor Willy Brandt's historic treaties with Poland and the Soviet union by massive favourable votes on Wednesday (May 17). The affirmative votes came after three weeks of political deadlock in the Bundestag, and were only possible because the opposition Christian Democrats abstained after a Party decision to do so a few hours before the vote. The final results of the vote for the treaties -- Chancellor Brandt's cornerstones of his policy of reconciliation with Eastern Europe -- were 248-10, with 138 abstentions for the Moscow Treaty, and 238 to 28, with 230 abstentions for the Warsaw Treaty.

The treaties, which permanently ensure the handover of former German territories to Poland and the Soviet Union after World War Two, now have to go to the Bundesrat -- the Upper House -- and to President Gustav Heinemann for final signature. They also open up the way for implementation of last year's four-power agreement on Berlin, and the recent treaty with East Germany on communications between the two states.