Sugar day and sleepy day
Christoph Schmidt has said Merkel's spending plans will run into trouble. Photo: DPA
Coalition's €23 billion plans 'not affordable'
Published: 28 Nov 2013 10:14 GMT+01:00
Updated: 28 Nov 2013 10:14 GMT+01:00
Updated: 28 Nov 2013 10:14 GMT+01:00
One of Germany's top economists says the country will not be able to afford the new coalition's spending plans - and that within four years taxes will have to be raised or debt increased.
While much of the rest of Europe puts up with austerity measures, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her new coalition allies, the Social Democrats, agreed to form a government on Wednesday which will increase spending by an estimated €23 billion over the next four years.
The plans include reducing retirement age in some cases, improving pension payments for parents and increasing investment in education and infrastructure.
Merkel insisted the money could be found without raising taxes or increasing government debt, but economists are sceptical.
Chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Christoph Schmidt, said the plans were not affordable in the long term. “The planned additional spending from 2015 might be able to be financed without new debts and taxes until 2017, but not beyond that,” he told the Welt newspaper.
He said politicians were currently benefiting from low interest rates but that this would not always be the case.
President of the Centre for European Economic Research Clemens Fuest also criticized the spending plans.
He said: “The biggest problem is the combination of stricter labour market regulation, lowering the retirement age and the introduction of new pension benefits. This increases social security contributions and lowers employment when what we really need is more jobs,” the Süddeutsche newspaper reported.
But Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who is expected to remain in his post in the next government, defended the spending. “We’ve calculated it properly,” he said on German radio on Thursday.
The Local (news@thelocal.de)
With a low birth rate, Germany has little choice but to accept more immigration. Photo: Patrick Pleul/DPA
‘Germany must say yes to more immigrants'
Published: 26 Nov 2013 15:10 GMT+01:00
Updated: 26 Nov 2013 15:10 GMT+01:00
Updated: 26 Nov 2013 15:10 GMT+01:00
The biggest threat to Europe’s top economy is not foreign competition but its low birth rate. It must open its borders to more immigrants, skilled and unskilled, says The Local's editor Tom Bristow.
Germany has a problem with immigration - it needs it, perhaps more than any other European country, but it does not really want it.
In July the government made it easier for people from outside the European Union to come to Germany to work - in particular sectors with labour shortages. But it was not a vote-winner - and was undertaken carefully and without great fanfare.
The Bertelsmann Foundation think-tank said its research suggested two-thirds of Germans think immigrants cause problems for schools and social services. And mayors from across Germany warned this week about the pressures that people from Romania and Bulgaria were putting on local services, with more due next year when European Union travel restrictions affecting those countries are lifted.
Attitudes towards immigrants among Germans will take decades to change, but once a stable government is formed, ministers will be in a strong position to pay less attention to what is wanted and more to what is needed.
Yulia Tymoshenko says no to food and yes to European integration
Ukrainian ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who currently remains at a hospital in Kharkov, refuses to eat. Tymoshenko went on a hunger strike demanding the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU.
In addition, Tymoshenko insists Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych should step down. According to her lawyer, Tymoshenko has already addressed to Yanukovych with an open letter, in which she gave him some advice.
Mass protests have been held in Kiev for several days already. The Ukrainians protest against the government's move to refuse from preparing an agreement of association with the EU.
In addition, a draft resolution of no confidence to the Cabinet of Minister has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament) of Ukraine.
http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20131128/105306.shtml
Japanese military aircraft have defied China’s new Air Defense Identification Zone, and flown into the zone without informing China.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says the planes, which flew into the zone on Thursday, were carrying out routine surveillance missions.
It comes a day after two US B52 bombers entered the zone without submitting flight plans to China in advance. The US also says it was merely carrying out planned exercises.
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Editor:James |Source: CCTV.com
