Enlarge image
The Reichstag building in Berlin
Photo: Maja Hitij / Getty Images
In order to finance the planned gas and electricity price brakes, the Bundestag has again approved an exception to the debt brake.
This enables the federal government to take out additional loans of 200 billion euros.
Such a decision is only possible in exceptional emergency situations.
The debt brake is enshrined in the Basic Law and stipulates that the federal budget should be able to manage without major loans.
However, there is a small margin of 0.35 percent of economic output.
In bad economic times, a little more debt can be incurred.
But even this sum will probably not be enough for the energy price brakes planned by the federal government.
Since the beginning of the corona crisis in 2019, parliament has repeatedly approved large loans.
Initially it was about corona aid for companies and citizens, but now it is about the consequences of the Russian attack on Ukraine with exploding energy prices and high inflation.
Details of the gas and electricity price brake are still open
A so-called defense shield is intended to cushion these burdens with a gas and electricity price brake.
How exactly the recently sharply increased prices for gas and electricity are to be pushed down is still open.
In the case of gas, a commission set up by the government has proposed that the federal government initially take on the December bills.
From March, an upper price limit for a basic quota of 80 percent of normal consumption could then apply.
Such a discounted basic contingent is also being discussed for electricity.
In this way, the federal government wants to ensure that energy is saved despite the lower price.
kko/dpa