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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is allowed to sign the law that allows Germany to participate in the EU budget until 2027 and the Corona reconstruction fund.

The court takes the constitutional complaint against the 750 billion euro reconstruction plan and the debts that are necessary for it seriously.

But apparently not as serious as the concerns were enough to halt the signing of the law pending a decision.

The judges thus create facts: Steinmeier is likely to sign the law this week, possibly even today.

Rapid ratification sends out an important signal

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Germany would thus ratify the so-called own funds decision and commit itself to its contribution to the EU budget until 2027 and to be responsible for its share of the up to 800 billion euros that the EU Commission will borrow on the markets in the coming months and years want.

Rapid ratification sends out an important signal.

The governments in southern Europe are already waiting for the payment of the first advance payment, which is supposed to flow in the summer.

Any delay in the disbursement of funds is closely followed there;

Even minimal delays are an issue in the media.

And a decision on the matter could take many months;

The judges have already made that clear.

If Karlsruhe had delayed the payment for so long, the EU Commission and the national budgets would certainly have devised a legal trick to fill the reconstruction fund with money anyway.

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But a German blockade would have jeopardized a central goal of the reconstruction fund: to appease EU critics in Italy and elsewhere.

With the decision, the court is also following its previous judgment practice: to complain about European political obligations that go too far from the judges' point of view, but not to endanger the ability of the federal government or the EU to act.

Nevertheless, the judges set out the limits within which the federal government may commit itself in the future: The decision is not a carte blanche for the debt union against which the plaintiffs warn.

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In the justification for today's decision, the judges make it clear that they consider the German obligation to be permissible only under one condition.

That it is a one-off measure in an exceptional economic situation.

The amount, duration and purpose of the EU debt must remain limited, as must Germany's liability.

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The judges put pegs in with these parameters.

Politicians will have to adhere to it if calls get louder in the coming months and years to turn the one-time rescue fund into a permanent facility.