Finances - Supplementary budget: Union has constitutional doubts
The CDU/CSU has expressed constitutional concerns with regard to the supplementary budget of the traffic light government for the current year. An incorrect accounting system is still being used in parts of the budget, said parliamentary group deputy leader Mathias Middelberg (CDU) in the Bundestag. "And that is why constitutional concerns remain about the supplementary budget today."
The supplementary budget is to be adopted today. The Federal Audit Office also considers it unconstitutional. This concerns the question of when loans are counted towards the debt brake: When they are approved or when they are actually taken out.
CDU politician Middelberg also had nothing good to say about the agreement reached by the traffic light coalition for the 2024 financial year. "This is not a good compromise for this country. It is more of an attempt to mend the rift in their traffic light coalition," he said. The agreement is a rescue package for the traffic light government. "Unfortunately, that's all it is."
The main components are "massive tax and duty increases". Among other things, Middelberg called for the introduction of the climate money set out in the coalition agreement. "That would also have been the decisive step towards social equalization," he said. The traffic light coalition had envisaged the climate money as social compensation for increasing climate protection burdens on citizens, but it has not yet been implemented.
Debt brake: reform commission called for
Baden-Württemberg's Finance Minister Daniel Bayaz (Greens) and Berlin's Senator for Finance Stefan Evers(CDU) are campaigning for a reform commission for the debt brake. This should be made up of representatives from the federal and state governments and academia in order to further develop the debt brake, write the two politicians in a guest article published in the "Tagesspiegel".
The two state politicians consider an investment rule as part of the debt brake to be a conceivable part of a possible reform. "This would enable the credit financing of additional investments, for example with a view to the challenges of transformation," they say in the guest article. "A new exception to the debt rule must not lead to new leeway being created for consumptive or non-targeted expenditure by politically charging the concept of investment."
The federal states also need more scope for debt. "A debt level for the federal states of 0.15 percent of their GDP, for example, would open up leeway that could be used for the most important federal state policy issue of education," write the two politicians. They believe that emergency loans should also be able to be used beyond the year in which the emergency begins.
The debt brake is being criticized following the budget chaos at federal level. There is talk among the federal states of launching a reform initiative in the Bundesrat, as Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) said on RBB-Inforadio.
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- Despite the CDU/CSU's constitutional concerns about the traffic light government's supplementary budget, it is set to be adopted today in the Bundestag.
- Mathias Middelberg, the CDU's deputy group leader in the Bundestag, criticized the agreement reached by the traffic light coalition for the 2024 financial year, stating that it is not a good compromise for the country.
- Middelberg also raised concerns about the accounting system used in parts of the budget, which he believes still contains inaccuracies, leading to ongoing constitutional concerns.
- In a guest article published in the "Tagesspiegel", Baden-Württemberg's Finance Minister Daniel Bayaz (Greens) and Berlin's Senator for Finance Stefan Evers (CDU) called for a reform commission for the debt brake to further develop the debt brake regulations.
- The two politicians proposed an investment rule as part of the debt brake reform, which would enable the financing of additional investments while avoiding the creation of new opportunities for non-targeted expenditures.
- Middelberg, as a CDU politician, also supported the call for a reform commission, indicating that the federal states need more flexibility in managing their finances.
- The debate over the debt brake reform comes amidst budget chaos at the federal level, prompting some federal states to consider launching a reform initiative in the Bundesrat.
Source: www.stern.de
