“We need international engagement to protect prosperity and security, especially here. And for that we need a nimble budget, a security budget,” said the Green Party politician in the debate on the Foreign Office’s budget in the Bundestag in Berlin. She added: “Does this budget that we are discussing here do absolutely everything we need? To be honest, no. We need much more for our security.”
Since the Union faction is not prepared to reform the debt brake, Baerbock appealed to the CDU and CSU MPs to work with the traffic light factions to launch a “security budget” similar to the special fund for the Bundeswehr.
As a consequence of the austerity measures, the Foreign Office has set “painful but clear priorities”. These include global humanitarian aid as well as support for Ukraine in its fight against the Russian war of aggression that has been going on for around two years.
Members of Parliament are counting on changes in discussions in the Bundestag
The chairman of the Union faction in the Foreign Affairs Committee, Jürgen Hardt (CDU), criticised, as did other speakers, that the Foreign Office budget provided by far the largest percentage of the savings in the federal budget. The democratic parties in the Bundestag had “promised that we would do more with Germany in the area of international responsibility”.
Other speakers demanded that improvements be made, particularly in the area of humanitarian aid, in the context of the Bundestag deliberations that are now to follow. On behalf of the FDP, Otto Fricke, in turn, called for other savings proposals if more is to be spent on foreign policy.
Approaches in the AA budget are shrinking
The budget for the Foreign Ministry provides for expenditure of 5.87 billion euros for 2025. This represents a significant decrease compared to 2024 (6.71 billion).
Baerbock will be able to spend 2.56 billion euros on projects to ensure peace and stability – almost a billion less than in the current year. The cuts in humanitarian aid and crisis prevention are even more significant. This approach is to shrink from 2.69 billion euros to 1.42 billion euros in 2025.
