BERLIN — Germany’s government plans to release €3 billion in military aid for Ukraine following the passage of a historic spending plan this week.
Speaking to lawmakers from his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Tuesday morning, chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said that the aid package for Ukraine will be released Friday following the expected passage of reforms to the constitution, people familiar with the discussion told POLITICO. Those reforms effectively exempt defense spending and aid for Ukraine from the restraints of Germany’s so-called debt brake, satisfying a key demand of the outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The news of the aid release is also timed to coincide with a summit of EU leaders in Brussels later this week in which aid for Ukraine and bolstering Europe’s defenses will be on the agenda.
Scholz had held up the €3 billion aid package for Ukraine during the campaign leading up to Germany’s Feb. 23 election, arguing that such aid should be contingent on borrowing and not come out of the normal federal budget.
That stance sparked widespread criticism.
The chancellor’s position “is obviously being used as an excuse not to help Ukraine,” senior CDU parliamentarian Jürgen Hardt, said at the time.
But now that the SPD and Merz’s conservatives have agreed on a deal to unleash hundreds of billions in new borrowing for Germany’s military and infrastructure as well as for aid for Ukraine, Germany’s current minority government, led by Scholz, appears ready to unlock the €3 billion aid package.
The Ukraine aid package had been one of the most contentious dividing lines between Germany’s mainstream parties ahead of the election. Scholz had argued that without new borrowing, Ukraine aid would require cuts to pensions and social spending.
The constitutional reforms to unlock borrowing have changed Scholz’s calculus. The reforms are likely to pass the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, on Tuesday and are expected to be approved in Germany’s upper house, the Bundesrat, on Friday.
The post Germany poised to unlock €3B Ukraine aid after historic spending deal appeared first on Politico.
