The FPÖ accuses ex-finance minister Magnus Brunner of violating his obligation to transparency and the faithful presentation of the financial situation of the federal government at the end of his term. Therefore, the liberal submitted an application for a ministerial position, which today in Budget committee with the voices of the coalition parties. The constitutional committee was assigned to the same.
In addition, the committee dealt with a report on the liquidation of Cofag today. The majority of this was noted with the votes of ÖVP, SPÖ and Neos.
The budget committee subsequently dealt with a number of reports from the finance minister for current budget development. The figures of the report on the provisional success of 2024 of the federal government have already been discussed several times. The majority of the report was noted with the votes of ÖVP, SPÖ, NEOS and GRÜNEN.
With the same majority of votes, three reports of the finance minister to be able to budget in the first quarter of 2025 as well as a report on the exceedance of the medium -sized use and budgetary preload during this period were noted. Two reports on the situation of the Euro countries in the first quarter of this year were also noted with the voices of all factions apart from the freedom. The reports show only a low risk of default defaults from the affected countries. As part of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), no new measures were taken, the BMF said.
FPÖ wants the National Council against Brunner charges at the Constitutional Court
Ex-finance minister Magnus Brunner gave “alternative and false answers” on the Austrian financial situation and the amount of the Austrian deficit on different occasions last year. By means of the application, the freedoms therefore demand that the National Council against Brunner charges the Constitutional Court (270/A). Arnold Schiefer (FPÖ) emphasized that Brunner had spoken of a deficit of around 3 % of the GDP in the budget committee before the National Council election last September and was “terribly surprised” by a WIFO forecast with a higher deficit two weeks later. He had at least a “warning obligation”, said Schiefer. Gerhard Kaniak (FPÖ) described Brunner’s information in the then budget committee as “real misinformation of this body and parliament”.
Kai Jan Krainer (SPÖ) said that he could not take the request of the FPÖ of a ministerial position against Brunner seriously, since it was only now coming and not in January, when the FPÖ was still in coalition negotiations with the ÖVP.
Andreas Hanger (ÖVP) referred to strict reporting obligations with regard to the budget development at the federal level and said that he “very clearly” rejected the budget situation.
He was not satisfied with every decision by Finance Minister Brunner, but he does not see a reprehensible behavior in relation to the legal situation, said Jakob Schwarz (Greens).
Karin Doppelbauer (NEOS) said that she could “not protect Brunner” because she had repeatedly pushed to look at the budget in the election campaign. However, she does not assume that the allegations against Brunner would “be enough for a ministerial order”. However, there is a lot to do with regard to the responsibility towards people when it comes to progress as role models, according to Doppelbauer.
Report on the liquidation of Cofag
The majority of the coalition parties votes a report on the liquidation of Cofag (COVID-19 financing agency of the federal government). In October 2023, the Constitutional Court lifted the construction of the Cofag due to unconstitutionality and considered the transfer of the tasks to privately organized society as inadmissible. In the implementation of the judgment, the COFAG is dissolved and the company’s tasks are transferred to the Ministry of Finance.
According to the report dated on December 31, 2024, the company had stopped operational operation as intended, resolved the supervisory board and advisory board, carried out a staggered personnel reduction and transferred all essential data and corresponding documents to the finance ministry. The steps relevant to the processing process were coordinated, the respective annual financial statements including the liquidation opening balance sheet properly created and tested (13/BA). According to the report, the operational activity of Cofag was discontinued on July 31, 2024. Until 31.07.2024, the Cofag had to complete all the still open COVID-19 funding applications. Insofar as funding applications were still unfinished by this date, the responsibility for finance minister passed.
In the course of the committee debate, Karin Doppelbauer (NEOS), Markus Hofer (Neos), Hubert Fuchs (FPÖ) and Arnold Schiefer (FPÖ) asked for current figures regarding the still open applications, the associated workload and the number of employees provided for this: inside in the finance ministry. An expert from the Ministry of Finance spoke of an extensive work volume for the next few years. The ministry will subsequently submit details and figures to the committee.
Preliminary building success 2024: Deficit Austria 2024 at 19.1 billion ꞓ
2024 was characterized by a “much poorer economic development” than predicted in autumn 2023 “, the Ministry of Finance in its report on the preliminary building success for 2024 (16/BA). Although interest and inflation faster than originally assumed. And the displacement of the recovery and resilience facility of the EU (RRF) was not taken into account in the 2024 federal input. Ꞓ, while the adjusted deposits increase by 0.3 billion ꞓ (+0.3 %) to 101.6 billion ꞓ.
At the end of March 2025, the provisional overall -state result was announced by the statistics Austria. According to these preliminary calculations, the Maastricht balance 2024 was -22.5 billion ꞓ or -4.7% of GDP, as the Ministry of Finance wrote in the report on the provisional success of 2024. The Maastricht deficit 2024 mainly concerned the federal government, the share of the total state deficit according to this calculation is around 17.1 billion or 3.5 % of GDP. The total state of debt was 81.8% of GDP at the end of 2024, whereby in addition to the higher absolute debt, lower growth of the nominal GDP had a negative impact.
Budget enforcement in the first quarter of 2025
The budget committee subsequently dealt with the report of the Ministry of Finance on the month of the month January, February and March 2025 (15/BA, 14/BA and 14/BA and 19/BA). The federal government’s net financing balance was therefore at the end of March 2025-7.6 billion ꞓ and was therefore better than in March 2024. The Ministry of Finance attributes this to a positive deposit development with a comparatively lower increase in payments. The federal payments were 29.2 billion ꞓ in the first quarter of 2025 by 0.3 billion ꞓ or 1.1 % higher than in the comparison period 2024. This development is attributed primarily to higher payments in connection with the municipal package 2024. Pension adjustment 2025 also caused higher payouts.
MPs Karin Greiner (SPÖ) and Jakob Schwarz (Greens) addressed the payments of the municipal package that have not yet been picked up. Members of Schwarz, above all, saw the abolition of the purpose of the funds critically. From the point of view of his parliamentary group, a federal requirement would have made sense for investments in climate protection. In addition, the question also arises whether the possibility of picking up funds without co -financing on the part of the municipalities, also arises not those disadvantaged that have already submitted projects with co -financing commitments.
From the perspective of FPÖ MP Arnold Schiefer and the ÖVP MP Angela Baumgartner and Christoph Stark, the relief when picking up funds from the community package are a real step in order to make financial weaker communities in particular.
At his request, FPÖ MP Maximilian Linder learned about the still available means for the municipalities from the period 2023 and 2024 by Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer that 880 million ꞓ from the Local Investment Act (KIG) and the purpose grant of digital change are still available. These funds would be proportional to the communities that they have not picked up so far, whereby there is a slight preference for smaller communities. The division is shown transparently by the BMF. The investments of municipalities and cities have significant economic effects. Therefore, in his view, it is a real step to flexible the requirements. This is particularly important.
MP Schwarz (Greens) also raised the question of whether the contribution that the federal states and municipalities can afford for the overall budget renovation was not “too optimistic”. Finance Minister Marterbauer said his department assumed that the federal renovation measures will have a positive effect on the income of the local authorities. On the further path of domestic budget consolidation and the austerity measures of federal states and municipalities required for this, he was still in negotiation with the local authorities, said Marterbauer.
454.4 million ꞓ Means of use in the first quarter of 2025
According to the Finance Minister’s report on the approval of exceeding the funds and in the first quarter of 2025 (20/BA), average overruns of 454.4 million ꞓ in the financing budget and 1,123.9 million ꞓ were not effective in the financing budget and 1,123.9 million ꞓ. approved. According to the finance minister, preliminary loads of 33.8 million ꞓ were also approved in the first quarter of 2025. The highest preload of 32.2 million ꞓ was made for the continuation and further development of the Agenda Health Promotion 2024-2028.
Stand of the euro crisis countries
A negotiation was made under one reports on the status of the euro crisis countries that the finance minister has to submit to the quarterly. The report on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) for the first quarter of 2025 explains that no new measures have been taken (17/BA). According to the report, Spain, Cyprus and Greece still have sufficient capacities to meet their liabilities. A similar picture shows the report in accordance with the action for payments (18/BA) for Ireland and Portugal. According to the BMF, the cumulative interest income of the Republic of Austria from the bilateral loans for Greece was 223.2 million ꞓ at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The liability of the Federal Funding of EFSF (for capital plus interest, including overgarant) amounts to around 10.31 billion ꞓ. (Continued budget committee) Bea/Sox
Note: the Parliament’s budget service offers economic analyzes on budget policy and templates from the Federal Ministry of Finance. All current data on the budget (monthly reports) can be found on the Finance Ministry website.