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Germany on its way to reforms?
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| trancaholic |
I've highlighted the interesting parts. What do you think? Is it too little too late?
From Ireland Online
| quote: | Germany inches closer to coalition
Germany’s main parties have come one step closer to building a coalition, agreeing on several points including raising the retirement age and a policy on Turkey, but they still must overcome the hurdle of plugging a huge budget shortfall.
Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats, the party of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, expect to have a formal agreement by the weekend on forming a so-called “grand coalition", Volker Kauder, Christian Democrat secretary-general, said after yesterday’s talks.
“The discussions once again showed that we are on a good path,” Kauder said. “We want to finish the negotiations by the end of the week.”
That would allow party conventions to approve any deal next week and parliament to elect Merkel as chancellor on November 22.
While the two sides reached agreement on many points yesterday, Kauder warned that the toughest issues of plugging the 35 billion euro budget gap, creating jobs and reforming the national health plan remained unresolved.
“In the coming days we have some major issues to tackle,” Kauder said.
Still, the two sides were able to report substantial progress yesterday, including the decision to raise Germany’s retirement age by two years to 67, starting in 2010, excepting anyone who has contributed to the state pension fund for 45 years.
They also adopted a policy supporting Turkey beginning talks on joining the European Union – a step supported by Schroeder’s outgoing government – which includes stating that the opening of talks does not guarantee Turkey a place in the EU, said Markus Soeder, secretary-general of the Christian Social Union, sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
During the campaign for the September 18 election, which gave neither side a parliamentary majority, Merkel’s conservatives opposed Turkey’s admission to the EU, arguing instead for a so-called “privileged partnership.”
Furthermore, the two sides agreed to streamline the nation’s complex government system, shifting powers between national and state levels, and set aside funds to support research and the construction of a high-speed rail line, as well as a network to examine the history of forced immigration and expulsion.
Yet many details remain open, and both sides likely will have to make painful compromises as they seek to combine efforts to boost the sluggish economy and cut high unemployment while closing a budget gap.
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| St_Andrew |
Too little too late for sure.
It's early for this coalition though, let's hope they can manage to do some larger reforms. |
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| St_Andrew |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4429518.stm
| quote: | German coalition poised for power
Germany's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have reached a deal to form a coalition government.
The deal followed four weeks of painstaking negotiations after inconclusive elections.
Party members said they had agreed to tackle Germany's budget deficit by raising some tax rates and cutting public spending.
CDU leader Angela Merkel is to become Germany's first woman chancellor.
Reports say top wage earners will have to pay an extra 3% in income tax, VAT will rise by 3% and social insurance contributions will also go up.
Both parties will hold conferences next week to ratify the accord before the coalition submits to a vote in the German parliament on 22 November.
The elections on 18 September left neither the SPD nor the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, with a majority in the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament.
"I am pleased to tell you that the pact for the second grand coalition on the federal level in the history of the federal republic of Germany is finished," a smiling Mrs Merkel said on Friday.
The deal covers 130 pages of policy detail.
But the BBC's Ray Furlong in Berlin says there is not much optimism in Germany that this government will be able to address the country's key problem of mass unemployment.
Details of the coalition agreement have drawn withering criticism from industry leaders, opposition politicians and trade unions, he reports. |
Now this article doesn't cover a whole lot, but cutting spending and increasing taxes doesnt really feel like it would put Germany back on track... I guess it's good they take the budget defecit seriously though. |
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| trancaholic |
| ^^^ I also think it's a bad sign when you start taxing the rich more than others. Usually, it's the rich which create the jobs and trade. |
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| Lepanto |
^^ Wow that looks so good on paper :rolleyes:
Once again from personel experience. Nothing's changed just yet. They are making people work for the gov't money and are paying them technically about 2/3 Euros an hour. They have no one to blame but themselves sitting on government for generations. |
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| St_Andrew |
| quote: | Originally posted by trancaholic
^^^ I also think it's a bad sign when you start taxing the rich more than others. Usually, it's the rich which create the jobs and trade. |
Exactly, that's why a flat tax system is so genious. If only CDU could have gotten a majority.... |
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