German Federal Government's 2010 savings package

The austerity package of the German Federal Government 2010 means the document of the German Federal Government published on June 7, 2010 under the name "Key points for the further preparation of the budget draft 2011 and the financial plan up to 2014" with eight financial policy measures for budget consolidation up to 2014 to save 80 billion euros in this period.

Departments affected by the savings

Portions of this article appear since 2010 is out of date to be .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

The savings package concerned the following areas:

1. Education and Research: The Federal Ministry of Education and Research was the only one that did not have to make any savings.
2. Labor and social affairs: The largest item of savings, around a third, relates to the social budget. The pension contribution for recipients of unemployment benefit II will be canceled, as will parental benefit . The heating cost allowance is canceled for recipients of housing benefit . Savings were also made in active labor market policy. Previous compulsory services under SGB ​​II are to be converted into discretionary services. At the same time, the sanctions under SGB II are being tightened. In the future, those affected by ALG II no longer have to be informed about the consequences of a certain action, but can be sanctioned directly. The municipalities responsible for assuming the housing costs will in future be able to independently determine the amount of "reasonable" housing costs to be covered.
3. Bundeswehr: From 2013, 2 billion euros less will flow into the budget of the Ministry of Defense each year, which is currently 31.1 billion euros. This is to be done, for example, by suspending conscription and reducing the troop strength by 40,000 men. Arms expenditure should also be checked. Here, however, the options are limited, since the defense companies have secured themselves against terminations and cancellations in their contracts.
4. Financial sector: The federal government headed the chapter of the savings package with "Appropriate liability of the financial sector". It should contribute two billion euros to the savings by 2012. However, this sum does not benefit the federal budget, but is fed directly into the "bank fund", which is supposed to protect against a future banking crisis. The low participation of the financial sector in the costs of the financial and economic crisis met with particularly strong criticism, especially when compared to the high savings in the social budget.
5. Public service, administration: The Federal Government summarizes the savings in the public service under "Increased efficiency in administration". A total of over 10,000 jobs are to be cut by 2014. In 2011 civil servants' income was also cut by 2.5 percent by not increasing the Christmas bonus. In addition, "savings in all available areas" should be made, that is, savings should be made on office supplies and current expenses. The public service is participating in the austerity package with 2.3 billion in 2011.
6. Families: The parental allowance will be reduced slightly for medium incomes, only 65 percent of the net income will be calculated instead of the previous 67 percent (it is completely eliminated for recipients of ALG 2), with an unchanged upper limit of 1,800 euros for parental allowance.

Further income and savings should be achieved through the introduction of an additional air traffic tax. With the nuclear fuel tax, the energy industry should pay around 2.3 billion euros annually.

criticism

The package of measures also sparked criticism from members of the ruling CDU party. The President of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, criticized the lack of burdens for the wealthy. The President of the CDU Economic Council , Kurt Lauk, also criticized the package as socially unjust.

implementation

On September 1, 2010, the cabinet decided to implement a number of points under the Budget Accompanying Act.

swell

• Original text: Federal Government - cornerstones for the further preparation of the budget draft 2011 and the financial plan up to 2014
• Spiegel: Black and yellow truncate the welfare state
• Tagesschau: The List: Cuts and New Levies ( Memento from June 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

• Consequences of the savings package for the environment and sustainability - Environmental magazine EnSaver

Individual evidence

1. ↑ RP-Online: Criticism of austerity package does not stop
2. ↑ On the way out of the debt economy
3. ^ Frankfurter Rundschau: Government approves austerity package