The former president of the Federal Constitutional Court, Hans-Jürgen Papier, has declared the legislation establishing the €500 billion “special fund” for infrastructure and climate protection-along with the corresponding budget law-to be open to constitutional challenge. Speaking to “Welt am Sonntag” Papier stated that objections could be raised regarding whether sufficient care was taken to precisely define how the credit funds are to be used, particularly concerning the conditions for additional investments. The fact that recent reports from economic institutes suggest that the money from the special fund might be used to cover existing gaps in the core budget, Papier noted, shows that the establishing law fails to sufficiently detail the constitutional requirements to prevent potential abuses. The legal scholar added, “The implementation of the Basic Law amendment is certainly a point that is legally vulnerable”.
According to Papier, a potential remedy could be filing an abstract norm control lawsuit against the establishing and budget laws at the Federal Constitutional Court; however, he added that this would require the support of at least a quarter of the members of the German Bundestag, which he does not see happening. Nevertheless, the professor warned that the federal government should not feel overly confident, suggesting that a state government could also file a norm control request, especially since elections are approaching in the eastern federal states, which could lead to fundamentally altered ruling majorities. In such a scenario, a lawsuit would no longer be out of the question.
Furthermore, Papier cautioned against any further relaxation of the debt brake. The jurist, who also referenced European law, said he is a staunch opponent of further easing the debt brake for the core budget. “I find it remarkable that parties, particularly those that repeatedly point to supposedly mandatory European law provisions concerning migration issues, tend to ignore EU law when dealing with financial and budgetary matters. They should be aware of the Maastricht criteria”.
