A paradoxical situation has developed in the European Union. The population is ageing, the economy is stagnating, and at the same time huge amounts of people's savings are lying unused in banks.
In March, the incoming German coalition government led by Friedrich Merz from the right-leaning CDU/CSU – the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union based in Bavaria – worked with the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and the Greens to pass a historic legislative measure, loosening the stringent rules surrounding the country’s ‘debt brake’ constitutional amendment, known as the Schuldenbremse.