Green leader Omid Nouripour is skeptical about the proposal by the Bundestag’s defense commissioner, Eva Högl (SPD), to replenish the special fund for the Bundeswehr when it is used up.
“The demand for the “replenishment” of the special fund does not meet the needs,” said the politician to the editorial network Germany (RND). “Because the vast majority of the money from the special fund, which is based on a legally stipulated one-off loan of 100 billion euros, has not yet flowed out. This is exactly where more emphasis is needed so that the defense minister’s structural reform efforts can get off the ground.”
Precise requirements planning is necessary so that the 100 billion euros are used where they could help the troops most with their tasks. Nouripour added: “It is true that secure financing and more money are also needed in the long term, because the Bundeswehr is facing major challenges.” But the levers for this are also more efficiency and more European cooperation. They must be turned on as a matter of priority instead of calling up potential issues for the day after tomorrow.
Högl recently said that one could think about replenishing the Bundeswehr special fund “when it is used up to finance projects over the course of the year – without the parliament’s participation rights being restricted”. A project like the successor to the Tornado jets cannot be financed well from the current budget because it is only related to one year, she told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” on Tuesday. Therefore, the form of financing via the special fund is correct.
On February 27, 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) heralded a “turning point” against the background of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. In the course of this, a special fund of 100 billion euros was approved for the modernization of the Bundeswehr.
