The North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament is holding a special session on Wednesday morning at the request of the CDU and the Greens. This emerges from an invitation sent by the President of the State Parliament on Monday evening. MEPs are expected to finally vote on a debt-financed so-called special fund to deal with the aftermath of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The special fund provides credit authorizations of up to five billion euros.

Actually, the state parliament should meet this Tuesday for its last session of the year and approve all financial plans. But then the AfD parliamentary group applied for a third reading of the law on the special fund with its minority rights. This vote - probably without a debate - can only take place one day later.

On Tuesday, the state parliament will first decide on the 2023 budget and will already vote on a first tranche of 1.6 billion from the planned special fund. The coalition of the CDU and the Greens withdrew an initially planned supplementary budget for 2022 at the last minute on Monday.

Act on Special Funds Proposal for budget 2023 Proposal for expenditure from special funds