BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s parliamentary budget committee on Sunday approved plans for a massive increase in state borrowing aimed at bolstering defence and reviving growth in Europe’s biggest economy.
The committee convened for an extraordinary session and backed the plans — agreed on Friday between the conservative CDU/CSU, the Social Democrats and the Greens — sending them on to parliament for adoption.
The bill, which includes a 500 billion euro ($540 billion) fund for infrastructure and changes to borrowing rules, will require a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary vote, which is scheduled for Tuesday, March 18.
It will be one of the last major acts of this Bundestag, or lower house, before a new one is due to convene on March 25 following an election last month.
“Today in the budget committee we have cleared the way for future investments,” Greens lawmaker Sven-Christian Kindler told Reuters. $1 = 0.9192 euros)
(Reporting by Holger Hansen; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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