Berlin (dpa) – The German Bundestag has agreed to reallocate billions of euros in the budget that were approved as pandemic loans for last year, but were not needed.
The funds instead are to be directed into investments in climate protection and digitization, under the supplementary budget for 2021 presented by Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
The move sees the unused loans worth 60 billion euros (66 billion dollars) placed in a special climate and transformation fund for use in the coming years.
The opposition called the move constitutionally questionable as money approved to fight the pandemic would be used for climate protection and other projects instead. The Christian Democrats have launched legal proceedings.
The Finance Ministry argued that the pandemic made many investments in climate protection impossible, which have to be made up for.
The federal government does not incur any new debts as a result of the reallocation.
The restructuring is important because Lindner has promised to comply with a brake on debt from 2023 onwards, when only a few new loans could be taken out, possibly too few to finance the new coalition’s sizeable projects to address environmental damage and Germany’s digital shortcomings.
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