Merkel ready to make spending cuts

[José]

Grèce, Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Grande-Bretagne, Allemagne… tous sabrent dans les dépenses publiques. Tous sauf les irréductibles gaulois.

Merkel ready to make spending cuts

By Gerrit Wiesmann in Berlin

The German government was close on Sunday night to agreeing changes to welfare provision and a big reduction in the size of its armed forces in a bid to get to grips with government spending in the midst of the eurozone debt crisis.

At a two-day retreat, ending on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet also looked set to agree a bank levy from 2012, a tax on nuclear power and a review of all subsidies, according to a policy outline obtained by the Financial Times.

Ms Merkel hopes the eight-point plan will help cut this year’s €70bn ($83bn, £58bn) shortfall between spending and tax intake by an annual €10bn until 2014, pushing Germany’s deficit to comfortably within European Union limits.

In the confidential seven-page policy outline, the government says it will give the federal labour office new leeway in disbursing welfare funds by turning jobless benefits currently guaranteed by law into means-tested payments.

This reform – which officials said could save €2bn in its first year – would go hand-in-hand with cuts in government allowances for new parents, which would hit big earners hoping for time off work to care for their children.

The cabinet also looks set to ask the defence minister to come up with a plan to cut the number of professional soldiers by 40,000 from 190,000, and to look at phasing out national service and its 60,000 school-leaver conscripts.

The government brief does not say how much such a step would save – more than €1bn has been mooted recently – but it does pledge about €3.6bn in annual savings over the medium term from other government employees.

The government plans to freeze Christmas bonuses for civil servants in 2011 – bringing a one-off reduction in planned wage costs by 2.5 per cent – and to cut 10,000 civil service positions by 2014 from about 450,000.

On the revenue side, Berlin plans to introduce a bank levy to recoup some of the costs of the financial crisis from the start of 2012, with go-it-alone “national measures” pledged if G20 or European countries do not join in.

While the government has said this could render up to €1.2bn a year, its policy outline shows it expects twice that – €2.3bn annually – from a new tax on the nuclear industry, earmarked to fund renewable energy projects.

The government is also looking at ending exemptions from the so-called eco-tax on petrol and energy, which could hit manufacturing. This is part of a root-and-branch review of all federal subsidies, which total €24bn.

Ms Merkel said budget consolidation would in the next years be “decisive” for eurozone countries – all still grappling with the region’s debt crisis.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/da7adf9e-71ac-11…144feabdc0.html

[MVL/T]

On profite quand même pour étendre quelques taxes, faut pas déconner, quand même.

[Aurel]

Dans le même numéro :

Finance ministers were at the negotiating table until 5am on Saturday before they agreed to drop proposals for a worldwide levy on banks, bowing to a wave of opposition led by Canada.

[…]

The main proponents of a global banking levy - the UK, Germany, France, the US and the International Monetary Fund - were surprised at the degree of hostility from opponents. They had expected discussion of a global levy to be postponed until after the Toronto G20 summit in June to avoid a domestic dispute in Canada, but thought an agreement was possible by the end of the year.

Une fois de plus, cette fois l'Allemagne est dans le panier kayak, nous pagayons à contre-courant.

[Punu]

Après l'échec de Copenhague et celui-ci, on ne peut que se féliciter de la prise de pouvoir des pays émergents. C'est fini, les conneries entre Occidentaux imposées au reste du monde.

[Fedaykin]

Après l'échec de Copenhague et celui-ci, on ne peut que se féliciter de la prise de pouvoir des pays émergents. C'est fini, les conneries entre Occidentaux imposées au reste du monde.

<pessimiste>Jusqu'à ce que ces pays soit complètement émergés et qu'ils fassent les même conneries que nous.</pessimiste>