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BTW germany starting to renig on its stimulus plan -->


http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKLK45013620090120

Merkel warns against delays to stimulus package
Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:55pm GMT

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[-] Text [+] NEUHARDENBERG, Germany, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel warned smaller parties against any attempts to delay the government's 50-billion euro ($66 billion) economic stimulus package with vetoes in the upper house of parliament.

Speaking to union leaders, Merkel said she expected the Free Democrats, part of regional coalitions in five of Germany's 16 states, and the Greens, in power in one state, to live up to their national responsibilities and not block the package.

Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) share power in a grand coalition at the federal level and control the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.

But the FDP and the Greens could force alterations to the stimulus package through their veto power in the upper house, the Bundesrat.

"In view of the economic crisis, it is important that the measures passed by the grand coalition now quickly pass through the Bundestag and the Bundesrat," Merkel told the union leaders in a meeting outside of Berlin.

The FDP has demanded steeper tax cuts while the Greens, who share power with Merkel's Christian Democrats in Hamburg, have called for changes to incentives for buying new cars.

If both FDP and Greens were to exercise their veto, the measures would not pass through the upper house -- although either party on their own could not prevent its passage.

The FDP has vowed to use their strong gains in a regional election on Sunday in Hesse to push for changes to the stimulus package.

The package, which combines new investments in infrastructure with modest tax relief and measures to boost the car industry, is meant to shield Germany from what threatens to be its deepest recession since World War Two.