Cleanup meeting canceled
Traffic lights need more time for the 2024 budget
November 22, 2023, 11:50 a.m
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The Bundestag is actually supposed to adopt the 2024 budget shortly. But after the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling, the FDP parliamentary group is open to a postponement. Now the traffic light also wants to cancel the budget committee’s adjustment meeting – which would make the schedule almost impossible to keep.
The traffic light coalition wants to cancel the budget committee’s adjustment meeting for the 2024 budget this Thursday. This emerges from a corresponding letter from the committee secretariat. Without a shortening of the deadline in the Federal Council, a decision on the 2024 budget would no longer be possible before the end of the year.
The FDP parliamentary group had previously questioned the coalition’s timetable for the adoption of the 2024 federal budget. It would be “no problem for the Liberals if we took a few more weeks to examine everything thoroughly and prepare the 2024 budget in accordance with the new requirements,” said the budget expert for the FDP parliamentary group, Christoph Meyer. “After the Federal Constitutional Court ruling, it is the order of the day to make the 2024 budget legally secure.”
The original plan of the traffic light coalition called for the budget draft to be passed by the budget committee on Thursday and by the plenary session of the Bundestag on December 1st. FDP parliamentary group vice-president Meyer justified his willingness to agree to a postponement with the fundamental effects of the Constitutional Court ruling. “The judgment fundamentally relates to the budgetary technology used by previous governments and must now be applied to a complex system,” said the budgetary officer. The SPD and the Greens want to stick to the schedule so far.
The opposition Union faction has already called for a postponement of the budget adoption in order to examine the consequences of the Karlsruhe ruling on state financing. “The coalition is carrying out an organized violation of the constitution,” said the budget policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Christian Haase, to the “Bild” newspaper. “It is called upon to face the realities. But the SPD and the Greens in particular are sticking to the obviously dubious budget process in an irresponsible manner.” Haase warned that “a consistent review of the overall budgetary situation for 2024 is required. The 2024 budget cannot currently be passed in this form unless the SPD and the Greens want to lead the country to ruin.”
BDI: Entrepreneurs are worried
According to its president Siegfried Russwurm, the Federation of German Industries (BDI) views the current political situation with the greatest concern. The numerous open questions as a result of the Federal Constitutional Court’s decision extremely unsettled entrepreneurs in an already difficult economic and global situation. “The federal government must now quickly provide clarity about the actual extent of the financial consequences of the judgment and then develop and implement a plan to deal with the situation in a considered and structured manner,” demanded Russwurm.
It is urgently necessary to check in all policy areas, especially in the transformation to climate neutrality, “whether the concepts chosen are of further use”. The BDI President warned that the uncertainty in companies increases the risk that important investment decisions will be postponed, canceled or made to the detriment of Germany as a location.