German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has once again assured the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, that his Cabinet will adopt the national budget for 2025 by the end of July.
Scholz did not commit to an exact date when questioned by lawmakers in parliament. "We will adopt the budget this month in the federal Cabinet as planned," he said.
The Bundestag typically discusses the budget after the summer break until the end of the year. "There will be no disruption to this schedule," Scholz added.
Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Greens and Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) originally planned to reach a Cabinet-level decision by July 3.
But delays in reaching a political agreement on the outlines of the budget mean that date can no longer be met, since civil servants at the Finance Ministry will need time to translate any deal into a draft budget document.
The Cabinet is now aiming to present a budget at its meeting on July 17, dpa has learned.
Negotiators must find ways to plug a gap that runs into the tens of billions of euros, and solve intense disagreements about whether to allow deficit spending despite tight rules on government borrowing.
In order to achieve the new target, however, an agreement in principle is necessary in the next few days, because the drafting of the budget law then usually takes another 10 days or so.
Scholz's Social Democrats are pushing for Germany's strict rules on borrowing, known as the debt brake, to be suspended. For Lindner of the FDP, this is out of the question.
The decision ultimately lies with the Bundestag, which will then deal with the draft budget from September onwards - if the Cabinet reaches an agreement.
