Finland and Sweden are set to deliver their formal applications at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels this week, with bloc members rallying around the move that requires unanimity among the 30 allies.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said a $40-billion package of US aid to Ukraine may be approved on Wednesday. Nato members rallied around Finland and Sweden on Sunday after they announced plans to join the alliance.
2021-04-23 14:05:55 GMT2021-04-23 22:05:55(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
BERLIN, April 23 (Xinhua) Germany s Bundestag, or lower house of the Parliament, passed a supplementary budget on Friday and approved an additional 60 billion euros (72 billion U.S. dollars) in debt.
The supplementary budget would provide massive financial support for society as a whole, said Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz during his speech in the Bundestag.
According to a government statement, the additional debt would allow a record of around 240 billion euros in loans this year to finance the enormous burdens caused by the COVID-19 crisis. It is about moving forward, overcoming the pandemic, said Scholz, stressing that funds were also allocated for health protection and as state aid for companies and employees in the country.
2021-04-13 14:35:31 GMT2021-04-13 22:35:31(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
BERLIN, April 13 (Xinhua) The German federal, state and local governments would take on an estimated 650 billion euros (773.1 billion U.S. dollars) in new debt between 2020 and 2022 in the course of the COVID-19 crisis, according to calculations published by the German Economic Institute (IW) on Tuesday. Depending on what happens in the coming weeks and months, this figure could be even higher, said IW Director Michael Huether in a statement. The COVID-19 pandemic was and remains the greatest economic and sociopolitical challenge of the postwar period.
If all of Germany s COVID-19 debt was to be repaid within 20 years, as the government plans, the country would have to repay 24 billion euros annually and in return would have to make savings in other sectors so that the public sector could generate surpluses again, according to IW.