Update from Berlin #14 | Federal Budget Week | Building Energy Act | G20 Summit

We’re back from the summer break. This week is all about the Federal Budget but the Goverment is also – again – presenting the Building Energy Act and Olaf Scholz is expected in India for the G20 summit.

In this episode:
– Federal Budget Week
– Building Energy Act
– Committee Meetings
– G20 Summit

[Full Script]

Hello and welcome back to our first Update from Berlin following the summer break. My Name is Florian von Gierke and I am looking forward to run through what’s happening this week with you.

I hope you had a great summer and are ready to jump back into action. I certainly am. Now a fair warning: While this week’s video is a bit shorter, there is a good reason for that: It is federal budget week.

Finance minister Christian Lindner from the Free Democrats will present and defend the proposed budgets for all ministries. The individual ministries’ budgets will be debated in parliament, starting tomorrow. The most attention will be placed on Wednesday morning’s debate on the Federal Chancellory’s budget. By tradition, the opposition parties use this debate as an opportunity to pass judgment on the Government’s policies overall.

Given that some ministries’ budgets were finalized mere days ago and some ministers did not get what they requested, the Family Minister’s proposal was cut by roughly 10 billion euros compared to what she had sought, it will be interesting to see how unified a front the governing parties will present during this week’s debates.

In terms of normal business, the coalition is putting back onto the agenda the Building Energy Act, for the final readings on Friday. You may remember that Germany’s Constitutional Court had forced the Government to postpone this bill’s final debate in parliament shortly before the summer break.

There are also a couple of hearings in committees. For example, the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and the Development committees will talk about the situation in West Africa and in Ukraine.

On the weekend the G20 Summit in New Delhi will take place. Although Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz apparently had a sporting accident over the weekend, which prevented him from campaigning in Hesse, by all accounts he is expected to travel to India.

That’s it for this week! As always leave a like or a comment and share this video with your network. And, should you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

We look forward to seeing you again next week on our regular schedule.