Domestic
Updated November 21, 2023, 12:20 pm
“Spiegel” cited a letter from the responsible State Secretary, Werner Gatzer, in which he ordered that “all commitment authorizations foreseen in individual plans 04 to 17 and 23 to 60 of the 2023 federal budget and still available be blocked with immediate effect .” The image shows the Federal Ministry of Finance BMF on Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin. ©IMAGO/STPP
The Ministry of Finance is extending its freeze to almost the entire 2023 federal budget. The news agency Portal and “Spiegel” reported this in the evening.
Following the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget decision, the Ministry of Finance (BMF) is blocking numerous items from the federal budget. “The BMF is pausing commitment authorizations in 2023 in order to avoid prior burdens for future years,” ministerial circles said Monday night. This affects the budgets of all ministries. A commitment authorization gives management the opportunity to assume payment obligations for future years, for example, for multi-year projects. Current editions this year will therefore not be affected.
Old liabilities would be “maintained” but no new ones would be “accepted”
It also stated that existing responsibilities would continue to be fulfilled, but that no new ones would be authorized to be assumed. “In exceptional cases, commitment authorizations may be unblocked.”
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“Spiegel” cited a letter from the responsible State Secretary, Werner Gatzer, in which he ordered that “all commitment authorizations foreseen in individual plans 04 to 17 and 23 to 60 of the 2023 federal budget and still available be blocked with immediate effect .”
The Federal Constitutional Court declared the reallocation of loans invalid
Last week, the Federal Constitutional Court declared null and void a re-allocation of loans worth €60 billion in the 2021 budget. They were approved to tackle the Corona crisis, but must be used for climate protection and the modernization of the economy. Now, the billions from the so-called climate and transformation fund are not available. The federal government temporarily suspended some projects that should have been financed by the fund. These were commitment authorizations for 2024 and subsequent years. (dpa/jst)
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