Wüst ahead of ministerial consultations: Creating clarity in the budget
Ahead of the meeting of federal and state economics and energy ministers on Monday, North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister President Hendrik Wüst has called for clarity from the federal government when it comes to drawing up the budget. The CDU politician said on the ARD program "Bericht aus Berlin" on Sunday evening that an honest assessment of the federal funds available in the coming year was needed. Clarity is also needed in order to be able to keep promises made. Following the Karlsruhe budget ruling, medium-sized industrial companies are nervous as to whether the federal government will keep promises already made regarding the allocation of funding.
With regard to the debt brake, Wüst said that he warned against a hasty debate on the subject. The CDU/CSU also agreed on this. "I am a big fan of the debt brake," said Wüst. It would protect future generations from the overreaching behavior of those in power today. The CDU state leaders in Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony have also recently shown themselves to be open to a reform of the debt brake.
The Basic Law would have to be amended to reform the debt brake. This requires a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag and Bundesrat. On Friday, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said that such a reform was not currently on the agenda.
On the question of where savings could now be made, Wüst said that nobody wanted to make savings on poor children. In the case of the basic child protection scheme, however, it was necessary to look at whether it would really help children to set up an authority with 3,000 to 5,000 jobs. With the basic child protection scheme, the federal government wants to set up a family service to inform families about possible entitlements and make it easier to calculate benefits. Wüst named the citizen's income as a further starting point. More incentives to work are needed.
Following the Karlsruhe budget ruling, there is a large gap in the budget. The Federal Constitutional Court had declared a reallocation of corona loans of 60 billion euros from the 2021 budget null and void. Since the judges' decision, there has been uncertainty - including about the consequences for the federal states. Following the ruling, Schleswig-Holstein, for example, declared a budget emergency for 2023 and 2024, as the federal state has also been working with emergency loans since the coronavirus pandemic.
The federal government needs to provide clear guidance on its economic policy, particularly in relation to the budget, to alleviate the concerns of medium-sized industrial companies who are anxious about the allocation of promised funding, as mentioned by Wüst. As the Household budgets of states like Schleswig-Holstein are impacted due to the Karlsruhe budget ruling, the need for a cohesive and consistent economic policy at the federal level becomes even more critical.
Source: www.dpa.com
