Bundestag suspends debt brake - 2023 budget adopted
The Federal Constitutional Court has put the traffic light government under pressure: in order to put the budget for the current year on a legally sound footing, the Bundestag is once again suspending the debt brake.
The Bundestag has suspended the debt brake for the current year and subsequently passed a supplementary budget. Parliament thus put the budget for 2023 on a legally sound footing following the Karlsruhe budget ruling.
The Bundestag has thus suspended the debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law for the fourth year in a row. The decision was made with the required majority of chancellors, with 414 votes in favor, 242 against and nine abstentions. The German government justified this with an exceptional emergency situation as a result of the war in Ukraine, which is provided for as an exception in the Basic Law.
The suspension of the debt brake is a prerequisite for the adoption of a supplementary budget for 2023, which essentially places the loan financing of energy price aid from the WSF crisis fund on a different legal basis. Earlier credit authorizations had expired due to a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. The supplementary budget is also due to pass through the Bundesrat at a later date.
With the supplementary budget, the federal government exceeds the borrowing permitted under the debt brake by 44.8 billion euros with planned new borrowing of 70.6 billion euros. Of this, 43.2 billion euros is for energy price subsidies for gas, district heating and electricity. Around 1.6 billion euros are earmarked for the flood relief fund following the flood disaster in the Ahr valley in 2021. Its financing from old credit authorizations was also invalid after the Constitutional Court ruling on the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF).
The court had ruled that loans taken out under suspension of the debt brake may only be used in the year in which the emergency was declared. The court therefore canceled 60 billion euros that the Ampel government had transferred to the KTF from coronavirus loans.
"We are thus putting the electricity and gas price brakes on a secure legal footing. We are securing the aid in the Ahr valley - that is right and that is important," said Green Party budget holder Sven-Christian Kindler during the debate. FDP budget holder Otto Fricke said: "This is budgetary policy as it should be." With a view to the 2024 budget, he spoke of a sensible compromise by the coalition. "If there is a war on the European continent, if a person like Vladimir Putin thinks he can put his power interests above the integrity of states on the European continent, then that is never a normal situation," said SPD budget officer Dennis Rohde, defending the renewed suspension of the debt brake.
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The Bundestag's suspension of the debt brake in 2023 was crucial for implementing the government's budgetary policy, allowing for the adoption of a supplementary budget that provides a legal basis for energy price aid. The German federal parliament's decision to suspend the debt brake once again underscores the need for flexible budgetary policies in response to extraordinary circumstances, such as the conflict in Ukraine.
Source: www.ntv.de
