In response to the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling, the traffic light is postponing the adoption of the budget for the coming year. This should also give the opposition more time for consultation, explained coalition representatives.
The budget committee in the Bundestag will not finally discuss the budget for 2024 on Thursday. In response to the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling, the traffic light coalition is postponing the adoption of the budget. A new date for the meeting was not announced. It is therefore unclear whether the Bundestag and Bundesrat can decide on a budget for 2024 this year.
They wanted to “draw up a budget that takes into account all the arguments in the judgment and at the same time the requirement of the Basic Law to conclude the budget this year,” explained the budget spokespersons for the government factions, Dennis Rohde (SPD), Sven-Christian-Kindler (Greens) and Otto Fricke (FDP ). “The Federal Ministry of Finance, in consultation with the federal government, must now clarify all open points as quickly as possible, but with the care required by the constitution.”
In the expert hearing on Tuesday, almost all experts showed a way in which the federal budgets for 2023 and 2024 can be drawn up in accordance with the constitution despite the Karlsruhe ruling, the statement said. “We are now examining this intensively. But the opposition must also be able to do this.”
Rohde, Kindler and Fricke pointed out that the postponement had been “explicitly requested by the opposition”. A new date for the meeting has not yet been set – but the budget should be finalized this year, the budget managers announced.
Agenda changed in the Bundestag
The chairman of the budget committee, Helge Braun, confirmed the rejection. A corresponding message was sent to those involved. The chairmen of the traffic light factions in the Bundestag have already changed the parliament’s agenda for next week. There will now be no budget week, said the parliamentary group leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP. Other topics will now be put on the agenda for next week’s Bundestag session.
“Yesterday, the budget committee of the German Bundestag discussed the implications of the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the supplementary budget for 2021 in an expert hearing,” write SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, the Green co-parliamentary group leaders Britta Haßelmann and Katharina Dröge and the FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr. It is necessary to carefully consider the effects of the Karlsruhe ruling when preparing the budget for 2024. “Our goal is to advise the budget quickly but with due care in order to create planning security,” she added.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz was satisfied with the budget committee’s decision. Respect for the Bundestag prevents it from dictating when a conclusion should be reached, said Scholz. The impact of the Karlsruhe ruling on the budget should be carefully examined.
Union is satisfied
The decision was met with approval in the opposition Union. Union householder Christian Haase commented: “We are pleased that common sense prevailed at the traffic lights.” It is now a matter of getting into a serious process for drawing up the budget.
Union deputy parliamentary group leader Mathias Middelberg explained that it had taken long enough. “But now the traffic lights have finally understood how far-reaching the consequences of the verdict really are,” he told the Reuters news agency. With the rejection, reason comes into the process.
“The traffic light was about to pass another unconstitutional budget,” said Middelberg. “Now the consequences of the judgment can be examined very carefully and prudently and budget planning can be adjusted accordingly. The traffic light will now have to set priorities and therefore also make savings.”
From the perspective of the largest opposition faction, the traffic light needs to speed up the 2023 budget. “The traffic light has to act quickly with regard to a supplementary budget for 2023,” said Middelberg. “Because this must be passed before the end of the year.”
The draft budget for 2024 should be decided at the meeting so that the federal budget can be approved by the Bundestag on December 1st and passed by the Bundesrat on December 15th. However, there is no agreement in sight as to how the financing gap opened up by the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling for 2024 will be closed.
Discussion about the consequences of the Karlsruhe ruling
Last week, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the reallocation of unused Corona loans amounting to 60 billion euros to the climate fund (KTF) to be invalid. There is now a big gap in the federal budget.
In addition, the economic stabilization fund WSF is also being called into question following the court ruling. The fund for dampening energy prices, described by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) as a “double whammy”, was provided with loan authorizations of 200 billion euros in 2022 while the debt brake was suspended, most of which were not to be used until 2023 and 2024. The court had made it clear that such emergency loans could only be used in the year in which they were approved.
Now the parties are wrestling with how to proceed. In several places in the government and the coalition it was said on Wednesday that the 2023 federal budget would amount to a subsequent suspension of the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law. But so far nothing is ready for a decision.
So far, the coalition planned to approve the budget and supplement it in the new year with a new economic plan from the climate fund. The government said there was confidence that the budget problems could be solved.