German Chancellor: The continued aid to Ukraine constitutes existential importance for Europe

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz considered Tuesday that continued aid to Ukraine is of existential importance for Europe.

In a speech to German representatives in Berlin, Scholz said that this support has existential importance, for Ukraine, of course, but also for us in Europe.

Germany, along with the United States, is one of the largest providers of aid to Ukraine, especially weapons.

He added, “It’s clear that we must not reduce our support for Ukraine, and for resolving the energy crisis that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while public opinion questions increase as the conflict in Ukraine worsens”.

Scholz delivered his speech at a time when his government was going through a budget crisis that would force it to resort to a higher than expected rate of borrowing to finance its expenditures and thus to increase its public deficit.

On November 15, the German Constitutional Court ruled that the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz violated the debt law stipulated in the constitution when it transferred 60 billion Euros allocated to support the fight against epidemics into a climate fund.

Following the court’s decision, the government suspended most projects financed through the Climate Fund and froze any new spending for the rest of 2023.

The new budget crisis has exacerbated divisions between parties over the correct way to use the money and put a question mark over Germany’s strict spending law.

These debt controls were included in the constitution in 2009 during the era of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, and it sets a ceiling for any new borrowing in Europe’s largest economy at 0.35% of gross domestic product.

This ceiling was suspended between 2020 and 2022 during the Covid and energy crises, but it came back into force this year.

Berlin will ask its representatives to vote on raising the federal budget deficit by 45 billion Euros.

Scholz justified this measure by the need to finance measures to “restrain the rise in energy prices in 2023”.