Bundestag approves budget for 2024, which includes almost €8 billion for Ukraine

On 2 February, after more than a month's delay, the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, voted for the 2024 budget with strict debt limits and abolition of agricultural subsidies, which farmers had opposed. The document includes almost €8 billion in military aid to Ukraine, which was announced last year.

Source: European Pravda with reference to AFP

Details: The German budget for 2024 was approved with 388 votes in favour and 279 votes against. It will amount to 477 billion euros, of which 39 billion euros are borrowed.

Thus, Germany is returning to the constitutionally enshrined practice of "debt brake", which does not allow the state to borrow more than 0.35% of annual GDP. The mechanism was suspended in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and not renewed later due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The budget includes a higher tax on passenger flight tickets, changes to social benefits, and cuts in agricultural subsidies, including the phased abolition of diesel tax breaks for farmers, which has caused outrage among them.

At the same time, Germany plans to provide new aid to Ukraine worth at least EUR 8 billion next year.

The upper house of the German parliament - the Bundesrat - has not yet approved the phased abolition of benefits for diesel fuel for agricultural machinery. The corresponding vote is expected on 22 March.

Background:

• Germany's budget situation has descended into chaos following a November ruling by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that Berlin cannot redirect 60 billion euros of unused funds from the COVID pandemic to climate projects.
• After the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany banned the transfer of unused emergency funds allocated to combat the pandemic to green initiatives and support for industry, a hole of 17 billion euros has sprung up in the draft German budget for 2024.

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