National Council discusses urgent laws: a historical day for Austria!

National Council discusses urgent laws: a historical day for Austria!

On Friday, the National Council presents the first concrete plans of the coalition of the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS for the next five years. In this special meeting, Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP) will submit his first government declaration, followed by a debate in which various ministers also have their say. In addition to the government declaration, there are important legal decisions on the agenda, including the new Federal Ministry Act and a statutory budget provision that will replace the current automatic budget provisorium, such as Oe24.at reported .

The statutory budget provisorium ensures that the financing is ensured in a few weeks until the extensive double budget is adopted. At the same time, there are concerns, since current ministers have only taken on the tasks of their predecessors, which leads to incapacity to act for several departments. The distribution of the ministries should only be finalized when the Federal Ministry Act comes into force. Among other things, this affects Social Minister Korinna Schumann (SPÖ), who currently cannot make decisions in their area because their responsibilities are still at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, reported parlament.gv.at .

important financial regulations

If the National Council does not decide on a statutory budget provisional by the end of the year, the automatic budget provision will come into force, which would mean that the upper limits of the previous Federal Finance Act continue to apply for 2025. This could lead to financial restrictions, since the administration can only operate within the framework of the legally defined limits. The budget 2024 sets a maximum limit of 74.4 billion euros for 2025, which must not be exceeded. Financial debts may only be recorded up to half of the amounts provided for in the budget, which also restricts the flexibility of the household.

The upcoming decisions are future -oriented for the evaluation of budget policy and the legislative legislation of the new government, while some measures such as the bank tax are subject to negotiations. The next regular meeting day of the National Council is planned for March 26, which requires faster clarification in the coming weeks.