Germany's 2027 federal budget cleared its hardest parliamentary hurdle in the early hours of Friday, November 13, when the Bundestag's budget committee finalised the spending plan after a marathon overnight adjustment session. The committee set core federal spending at 560.92 billion euros — a record level — with total new borrowing of 210.4 billion euros once special funds are counted, the second-highest borrowing figure since the Second World War.
Source: Reuters
The session, the committee's traditional 'Bereinigungssitzung' or clean-up sitting, began on Thursday afternoon and ended at 5:55 a.m. on Friday after nearly 16 hours. Lawmakers voted on more than 1,080 motions before the coalition's budget spokespeople, Christian Haase of the CDU and Thorsten Rudolph of the SPD, presented the result at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin that morning.
Source: Pollar News (Bundestag reporting)
The numbers, in full
The total borrowing of 210.4 billion euros — yaani more than a third of everything the federal government plans to spend next year — sits just below the 215.4 billion euros raised in 2021 at the height of the coronavirus emergency, according to figures reported by Reuters. Inside the core budget, net borrowing is set at 122.97 billion euros, up from 97.96 billion euros in 2026, and 84.55 billion euros of that is exempted from Germany's constitutional 'debt brake' under the exception for defence and specified security spending — meaning debt-brake-relevant borrowing now sits exactly at the legal ceiling.
Source: EuropeSays (Bundestag figures)
Tax revenue for 2027 was set at 396.21 billion euros, 1.49 billion euros higher than in the government's original draft, and the committee raised planned investment above the draft as defence and infrastructure remain the package's stated priorities. The defence ministry's allocation is reported at about 109.75 billion euros, with further money available through the special Bundeswehr fund, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition pursues its vow to strengthen Germany's armed forces and rebuild core infrastructure.
Source: Reuters
The electricity-tax fight is not settled
One promise did not make it into the numbers. Merz is holding to his plan to cut the electricity tax to the European minimum for private households and small businesses, but the cut — put at about 5.4 billion euros — is not funded in the 2027 budget. Speaking on the sidelines of an informal EU summit in Dublin, the Chancellor kept the pledge alive, and the coalition committee is due to take the question up again on Tuesday, November 17. Haase told reporters that changes to the draft remain theoretically possible before the final vote, although that has not happened in the past.
Source: Pollar News (Bundestag reporting)
To secure agreement after weeks of disputes over taxes, welfare and the size of the investment drive, the coalition dropped or delayed other plans: a planned tax on plastics was dropped, and a tax on sweetened drinks was postponed. The CDU/CSU and SPD backed the package in committee, while the AfD, the Greens and the Left Party voted against it, according to the Bundestag's account of the session.
Source: Reuters
Germany is the eurozone's largest economy and Europe's biggest financial backer of Ukraine. A budget that pushes borrowing to near-COVID levels — much of it shielded from the debt brake for defence — signals how deeply the war on Europe's eastern flank, and the pressure to rearm, is reshaping public finances across the continent.
What happens next
Friday's committee decision is not the final law. The package — formally the government's bill, Bundestag document 21/7300 — now goes to a vote of the full Bundestag in the sitting week of November 24–27, and must also pass the Bundesrat, the upper house. Germany's council of economic experts, in its autumn outlook, forecast growth of 1.3 percent in 2026 and 1.0 percent in 2027 — the modest backdrop against which the record spending and borrowing will be judged.