2/9/2024 0 Comments At our next meeting“The €60 billion is only the government spending. Habeck did not want to give details on how the government plans to replace the €60 billion cancelled from the climate fund, warning however that cutting expenditures could also lead to substantially less private investment into the green transition. “In order to protect and further develop Germany’s economic substance in this situation, to renew prosperity, create jobs and stabilise regions, we have made good use of these funds,” he added. ![]() When the government started, there were still the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the deep economic slump, then there was the energy crisis, then there was the unstable global situation,” Habeck said. In a TV interview on Tuesday evening, Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said that Germany was still “in a crisis situation”, which hints that the government wants to make use of that option. ![]() To secure the legality of the energy aid in 2023, the government might retroactively declare an emergency situation for 2023, arguing that the repercussions of the war in Ukraine were still noticeable. Replace the €60 billion – or cut spending? Germany's next big fight coming up: Berlin's frantic search for €60 billionĪfter a ruling by Germany’s top court barred €60 billion from the government’s climate action fund, politicians are frantically searching for ways to close the gaping hole in the budget, with the Social Democrats questioning the constitutional debt limit. “Only when the budget for 2023 is constitutionally secured can the budget for 2024 be planned and finalised in accordance with the constitution,” Kube said during the hearing. Given the justification of the ruling, which forbids the use of debt justified with an emergency situation in one year in subsequent years, using parts of the €200 billion in 2023 to stabilise energy prices could have been unconstitutional, too, Hanno Kube, law professor at Heidelberg University said during the hearing. Initially, the budget was meant to be finalised in the committee this week, before being adopted by the plenary of the Bundestag on 1 December.ĭuring an expert hearing of the committee on Tuesday (21 November), legal experts voiced concern that the ruling could not only affect the €60 billion transferred into the climate fund, but also other funds, such as a €200 billion “energy shield” set up during the energy crisis following the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022. “Our aim is to discuss the budget swiftly but with due care in order to create planning certainty,” the group leaders added, without however specifying a new date for the budget adoption. “We believe it is necessary to carefully consider this judgement when drawing up the budget for 2024,” the parliamentary group leaders of Scholz’s Social Democrats, Greens and liberal FDP (Renew Europe) said in a joint statement. On Wednesday (22 November), however, leaders of Germany’s three-party coalition announced that the budget negotiations would be delayed, cancelling a budget committee meeting on Thursday during which the 2024 budget was meant to be finalised. ![]() While the ruling affects the “Climate and Transformation Fund” which is not officially part of the federal budget, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) initially announced that negotiations for the regular 2024 budget would continue, as these calculations were not directly affected. The German constitutional court last week Wednesday (15 November), nullified a decision to transfer €60 billion of unused debt authorised during the COVID-19 pandemic into a climate fund, leaving to the government how to replace the cancelled sum. ![]() The German parliament’s budget committee has delayed a meeting originally set for Thursday (23 November) to finalise the 2024 budget, following a court ruling that cancels €60 billion off a climate fund and could have broader implications for other public spending.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |