UPDATE: Germany Merkel: To Hold Summit On Crisis Dec 2
(Adds comments by Merkel, vice chancellor; background.)
By Andrea Thomas
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- The German government will hold a meeting with
representatives from the country's businesses, banks and trade unions Dec. 2 on
how to overcome the economic and financial crisis, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said Wednesday.
Merkel also said the cabinet will work on a plan for a "sustainable,
economically viable and environmentally friendly energy supply", to be published
by October 2010.
The chancellor's comments came in a televised press conference concluding her
cabinet's two-day closed-door meeting in Meseberg to discuss the new
government's program.
"We want to reach a consensus backed by all members of society for our target
to create more employment, to prevent a credit crunch, and all tasks linked to
this," Merkel told reporters.
This was the cabinet's first closed-door meeting since it took office last
month. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday evening in Meseberg
that the cabinet had agreed to cut income taxes by EUR20 billion from 2011 and
to introduce a simplified tax-bracket system.
The chancellor also said the government will present its 2010 budget to the
cabinet Dec. 16, which will then likely be adopted by the lower house in March
or April.
The government has agreed to inject EUR3.9 billion in taxpayers' money into
the public healthcare system next year, she said.
Notwithstanding Merkel's comments, the government has been relatively
unspecific about its plan to extend the lifespan of Germany's 17 nuclear power
plants, effectively abandoning a nuclear phase-out scheduled for 2021.
It has yet to outline conditions that will apply to utilities groups that own
extended-lifespan plants, notably in terms of how they can spend windfall
profits from keeping the sites open.
The government also hasn't said yet how it aims to meet its target of reducing
carbon dioxide emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, or the role it wants
renewable energy to play.
Speaking at the same press conference, Guido Westerwelle, vice-chancellor and
foreign minister, said: "Tax fairness is no contradiction to healthy public
finances. Rather, the one is imperative to the other."
The ruling conservative Christian Democratic Union, the Bavarian Christian
Social Union sister party and the Free Democrats have been at odds in recent
days over the coalition's tax policy.
While the Free Democrats insist on a far-reaching reform of the tax system,
Schaeuble has said there isn't currently any money for such a reform, only for
income tax cuts.
The government expects the German economy to contract by 5% this year and 1.2%
in 2010.
-By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; +49-30-288-8410; andrea.thomas@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-18-090924ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
|