BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s budget committee interrupted final deliberations on the 2024 draft budget early on Friday morning, according to the chief budget officers of the coalition government, after a constitutional court ruling threw negotiations into disarray.
Germany’s ruling coalition is scrambling to fix a large hole in its finances after a court ruling blocked the government from transferring 60 billion euros ($65 billion) in unused funds from the pandemic towards green initiatives and industry support.
The contents of the ministries’ budgets have been finalised during the committee meeting, the budget officers said.
Some specific expenditure allocations, however, will be discussed next Thursday in detail, after a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the constitutional court ruling.
Key budget figures and new debt figures will be made public next Thursday.
On Wednesday, the constitutional court decision prompted the government to postpone the formal vote of the budget committee until next Thursday.
(Reporting by Holger Hansen and Maria Martinez; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Gerry Doyle)
