Agreement on multi-billion spending
The Union, SPD and Greens have all backed a major funding package for defence and infrastructure. The Bundestag will vote on the package on Tuesday.
Berlin (dpa/d.de) - The billion-euro spending package for defence and infrastructure has cleared a major hurdle following agreement between the leaders of the Union, SPD and Greens after protracted discussions. Friedrich Merz (photo), leader of the CDU and Germany’s likely next Chancellor, announced in Berlin that he was pleased with the result.
The current Bundestag is expected to approve the package this Tuesday, for which the Greens needed to back the plan in order to reach the necessary two-thirds majority. The Bundesrat will then need to approve the spending on Friday.
In talks, the parties agreed to ease the “debt brake” to allow for defence spending and—at the request of the Greens—spending on cyber security, civil defence, the intelligence agencies and support for states that have been attacked in breach of international law. All spending which exceeds 1% of GDP is to be funded by borrowing – without any upper limit.
A special fund is to be set up for infrastructure investments which will be excluded from the “debt brake” established in the German constitution. It will be funded by borrowing worth up to €500 billion.