The Federal Ministry of Finance in the government district in Berlin.
Quelle: Christophe Gateau/dpa
According to information from various media and news agencies, on Monday the Federal Ministry of Finance extended the budget freeze imposed on the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) to almost the entire federal budget.
This emerges from a letter from Budget State Secretary Werner Gatzer, which was available to Reuters in the evening. No comment could be received from the Ministry of Finance.
Ministry circles said:
The BMF is stopping the commitment authorizations in 2023 in order to avoid prior burdens for future years.
Ministry circles
Gatzer refers to paragraph 41
“In order to avoid further prior burdens for future financial years, I therefore intend to block with immediate effect all commitment authorizations that are set out in individual plans 04 to 17 and 23 to 60 of the 2023 federal budget and are still available,” the letter says.
Gatzer refers to Section 41 of the Federal Budget Code, which regulates a budget freeze. The individual budgets of all ministries are affected by the individual plans mentioned. Individual plan 60 includes the climate and transformation fund and the 200 billion euro defense umbrella to curb energy prices.
According to the list, constitutional bodies such as the Federal President, the Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the Federal Constitutional Court are excluded.
Lindner has blocked the budget for climate funds
There are also further clarifications from the court on the debt brake in the Basic Law and the legality of loans, which could also have consequences for the current 2023 budget and the planned 2024 budget.
Gatzer: Review of the entire budget situation
As a result of the ruling, there is a “need to review the overall financial situation for the federal budget,” writes Gatzer.
After the budget freeze, I can only hold out the prospect of a release of commitment authorizations (…) requested by the ministries in special individual cases if the need is stated in writing and cannot be denied in terms of the facts and time.
“A particularly strict standard is applied to prove such a need”.
2023-11-20 23:10:52
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