The Defence Ministry has failed in its attempt to prevent the inspectors of the military services from having contact with the Bundestag, as the on-line edition of Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported, referring to Rainer Arnold, defence policy spokesman of the SPD [Social Democratic Party of Germany] Bundestag group. Defence State Secretary Stephane Beemelmans had set forth in an internal note that there is "a fundamental reservation against direct communication of the inspectors with the political parliamentary area." The participation of the inspectors in the sessions of the Defence Committee beginning in April was supposed to occur only "on the instructions or approval of the ministry management." The representatives of all Bundestag groups in the committee subsequently wrote a letter of protest to Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere (CDU) [Christian Democratic Union]. Beemelmans then withdrew the ban in the Defence Committee.