BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s parliament on Friday voted to suspend the constitutional debt brake as it prepared to approve a 200 billion euro ($195 billion) emergency rescue package to tackle the energy crisis.
Europe’s biggest economy is trying to cope with surging gas and electricity costs caused largely by a collapse in Russian gas supplies to Europe, which Moscow has blamed on Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in February.
The 200 billion euro package includes a gas price brake and a cut in sales tax for the fuel.
“The foundation for electricity and gas price brakes and other support has been created,” Finance Minister Christian Lindner wrote on Twitter. “In this energy war, we must use our economic strength to sustain it.”
(Reporting by Christian Kraemer and Holger Hansen; writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
