BERLIN (MNI) – The budget committee of Germany’s lower house of
parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday approved the government’s bill
to reform the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which
includes more powers for the German parliament on deciding about future
aid measures for ailing Eurozone member states.
The approval by the budget committee was widely expected given that
most opposition parties signaled beforehand that they would vote with the
government camp for the bill. The Bundestag is scheduled to vote on the
bill on September 29.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German daily Berliner
Zeitung in an interview published Wednesday that the government “will
have a majority of 80% for the bill in the Bundestag” due to the
opposition support. So it wouldn’t matter if some parliamentarians from
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU-FDP government coalition voted
against it, he said.
Some press reports had speculated that the coalition could break up
if it needed to depend on opposition votes in order to pass the EFSF
bill. Schaeuble, however, suggested that he sees no risk of a coalition
break up. CDU/CSU and FDP will govern together until the end of the
legislature in 2013, he said.
FDP parliamentary leader Rainer Bruederle said on Tuesday that the
state of the coalition is “good.” There is an “excellent collaboration”
with the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, he said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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