Loans for energy price brakes
Bundestag clears the way for a 200 billion defense shield
10/21/2022 11:21 am
Parliament allows additional credits of 200 billion euros to finance the planned gas and electricity price brakes. For this, the MPs make another exception to the debt brake.
The Bundestag has lifted the debt cap for the 2022 federal budget for a second time. With the chancellor majority of the SPD, Greens and FDP, parliament voted for additional debts of up to 200 billion euros to cushion the consequences of rising energy prices and high inflation for consumers and the economy. The debt brake anchored in the Basic Law was therefore lifted a second time for this year.
This was already necessary when the federal budget for 2022 was decided at the beginning of June, because the budget provided for new debt of almost 139 billion euros. The Basic Law allows this in an “extraordinary emergency situation”. The debt brake has been suspended since 2020. The federal government justified the renewed lifting for 2022 with the effects of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine on energy prices.
According to the decision, their drastic increase represents a significant, sometimes existence-threatening burden for the population and companies in Germany. To finance the countermeasures that are possible until June 2024, 200 billion euros will have to be made available this year. A so-called defense shield is intended to cushion these burdens with a gas and electricity price brake. The Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) will be authorized to take out loans of 200 billion euros in 2022.