German CDU’s Kauder Says ‘Confident’ EFSF to Get Majority

Volker Kauder, the floor leader for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc, said he’s “confident” a bill to enhance the European Financial Stability Facility will be passed with a coalition majority.

Kauder, speaking to reporters in Berlin after the Cabinet backed the EFSF changes, said that coalition lawmakers will develop “guidelines” for the involvement of parliament in drafting the legislation during a two-day conclave that began today. The guidelines will be put to the ruling parliamentary groups on Sept. 5, with amendments lodged after talks with the opposition to get them on board, he said.

A Finance Ministry preamble to the draft bill gives parliament the right to decide how it participates in EFSF operations, satisfying a key demand of coalition lawmakers who had complained about a lack of consultation, threatening to derail the package, a copy obtained by Bloomberg News shows. It also invites lawmakers to make proposals on separate legislation due to go to parliament in October on Germany’s contribution to a second aid package for Greece.

Kauder said that the parliamentary heads of the three coalition parties had asked for the omission. “It’s not the job of the government to make a proposal on the contribution of the German parliament,” he said. “That’s something for us to do.”

The group leaders “are generally agreed that there shall be a staggered procedure in German parliament,” he said. “But the implementation of such a rescue umbrella has to be possible operationally without the need to have lengthy public debates in parliament.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Rainer Buergin in Berlin at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net