German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition has postponed talks on next year's budget indefinitely on the budget for next year, trying to find a way out of the crisis caused by the "hole" in the budget of 60 billion euros. The issue of allocating 8 billion euros of military aid to to Ukraine next year is still in a in a "suspended state". This was reported by Reuters, UNN.
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Among the possible options for overcoming the crisis in Germany are drawing up a supplementary budget for 2023 and suspending the limitation on the increase in public debt before resuming it next year.
"Our goal is to discuss the budget quickly but with due caution," the ruling party's lawmakers said in a joint statement. party.
The delay in passing the budget the adoption of the budget has increased uncertainty about spending in all sectors of the of the German economy and means that the main The country's main budget for 2024 may not be approved by the end of the year.
The government has already frozen most of the new spending commitments and has blocked the spending of funds from the from the €200 billion economic stabilization fund for this year.
Virtually all expenditure items that have not yet been officially have not yet been officially approved, are in limbo. Among them is the aid to Ukraina.
The German government planned to to double military aid to Ukraine to 8 billion euros next year, but a representative of the Ministry of Defense did not specify whether this promise would be fulfilled. promise will be fulfilled, referring to the fact that it is still being discussed.
"The political consequences of the decision of the German constitutional court continue to affect German politics and are now affecting EU politics as well, making it much less likely the likelihood of reaching an agreement on the revision of the EU budget at the European Council on December 14-15 and even jeopardizing the bloc's commitment to to finance Ukraine in the amount of 50 billion euros until 2027," the Eurasia Group said in a Eurasia Group's note.
As a reminder,
On November 17, the Budget Committee suspended final discussions on the draft budget for 2024, following a ban by the constitutional court to transfer 60 billion euros ($65 billion) of unused funds to overcome the effects of the pandemic to environmental initiatives and support for industry.