Germany news: Parliament agrees on debt-laden 2027 budget
The budget committee in the Bundestag worked into the night to sign off on next year's spending plans. These include levels of new debt only eclipsed once, at the height of the COVID pandemic. DW has more.
On Friday, November 13, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, reached an agreement on the country's 2027 budget, despite the fact that the process took over 15 hours. The committee members, who had been working late into the night, managed to finalize the spending plans before the year's end.
The new debt for the 2027 budget accounts for about a third of the total spending plans, with the total amount of new debt projected to be just over €210 billion ($233 billion). This is the second-highest level of new debt in post-war German history, surpassing even the peak of the COVID pandemic debt in 2021, which was €215.4 billion.
The budget plan also includes around €400 billion in taxes, which is the income Germany expects to generate to cover its spending. Although the debt brake and the promise of not taking on any new debts, known as the "black zero," were popular topics during previous debates, they were not part of the finalized agreement this time.
The finalized budget, which includes spending plans for the core budget, as well as special funds for infrastructure and military modernization, is set to take effect without too many complications. The agreement emerged in Berlin around 6 in the morning, providing some much-needed relief to the budget committee members who had been working tirelessly for over a day.
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