The Federal Court of Auditors has expressed serious constitutional concerns about the planned diversion of 60 billion euros to the energy and climate fund with the help of a supplementary budget.
The traffic light government launched legislation just before Christmas to prevent loan authorizations not needed in 2021 from being forfeited.
Next Monday, the Finance Committee of the Bundestag will hear experts on the matter.
"The allocation of 60.0 billion euros to the energy and climate fund estimated in the second draft supplement for 2021 appears constitutionally dubious from a number of perspectives," says the written opinion of the Federal Court of Auditors for the Finance Committee.
Climate change does not represent an exceptional emergency within the meaning of the Basic Law. "Such a situation requires that it is an acute, sudden crisis, the management of which requires rapid, temporary financial efforts." Climate change is a permanent challenge.
The federal government claims that the funds are “necessary to overcome the emergency situation caused by the pandemic”.
"If one were to accept such a sweeping statement as valid,
Unlike the Federal Court of Auditors, the expert Alexander Thiele from the University of Management and Law in Berlin, appointed by the Greens, assumes that the second supplementary budget is constitutional overall.