The budget crisis in Germany has jeopardized the German authorities’ planned increase in financial support for Ukraine next year from 4 to 8 billion euros.
This was reported by the German publication Der Tagesspiegel, citing the head of the Bundestag Defense Committee Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.
Why German aid to Ukraine is under threat
According to the report, Strack-Zimmermann said that the planned increase in military aid to Ukraine from 4 to 8 billion euros in 2024 is not guaranteed at the moment.
According to the parliamentarian, the increase in financial support must be justified separately to the Ministry of Finance.
CDU MP Ingo Goedechens previously told the publication that there is now no certainty about doubling aid to Ukraine.
If military aid is not increased now, Germany will not be able to provide further assistance to Ukraine next year. – said Goedehens.
Earlier, a representative of the German Ministry of Defense said that at the moment he could not say whether the planned increase in support for Ukraine would be implemented in the budget for next year.
At the same time, according to a representative of the Ministry of Defense, funding for the new aid package of 1.3 billion euros promised by the head of the department, Boris Pistorius, during his recent visit to Ukraine has already been guaranteed.
On November 21, the German Ministry of Finance decided to temporarily freeze almost all allocations from this year’s budget in connection with the decision of the Constitutional Court on the illegality of the redistribution of unclaimed 60 billion euros of loan funds.
This step does not mean blocking all budget expenditures, but makes additional payments impossible without the approval of the Ministry of Finance.
On November 11, the German publication Bild, citing sources in the German Ministry of Defense, reported that Berlin plans to increase assistance to Ukraine from 4 to 8 billion euros in 2024.
According to the publication, initially 4 billion euros were provided for financing Ukraine in next year’s budget, but the Ministry of Defense requested another 5 billion euros, of which the government decided to allocate 4 billion euros.
