Berlin: Germany's parliament would probably be given a vote on any financial aid for Greece, the Finance Ministry said, risking a showdown with lawmakers.
"The Finance Ministry would seek legislative authority" in the event that Greece calls for aid, ministry spokesman Michael Offer told reporters in Berlin yesterday. The lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, "would of course have to endorse such authority." He gave no indication how long the legislative process might take.
A parliamentary vote would be an about-face after Offer suggested two days ago there was no need to consult lawmakers over Germany's 8.4 billion-euro (Dh42 billion) contribution to a 30 billion-euro Eur-opean Union package for Greece. Germany's budget allows for the government to grant certain loans and guarantees through the state-owned KfW development bank without lawmaker approval, Offer said April 12.
Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's own coalition criticised the decision to sign up to the EU rescue plan for Greece. Merkel, facing a regional election next month in Germany's most populous state, has said that German taxpayers won't be called upon to subsidise Greece.
"Germany buckled under the pressure," Schaeffler said April 11. "We shouldn't kid ourselves that such loans are anything but subsidies."
Offer also denied a report in yesterday's Handelsblatt newspaper that the EU's rescue package for Greece may turn out to be as much as 90 billion euros, three times as large as originally announced.
