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11. Long-term sustainability is monitored through a periodic report prepared by the
Federal Ministry of Finance.
The report provides clear projections and scenarios for how
the public finances may develop over a 50-year horizon, and highlights the role of key
assumptions (demographic, migration, labour-market participation and other factors). The
report does not feed directly into the policy deliberation processes associated with the
budget. There are different mechanisms for reporting on fiscal risks – depending on the

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OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 2014/2 © OECD 2015
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type of risk – in addition to the qualitative discussion that appears in the EU-related
Stability Programme document in April.
12. Capital budgeting in Germany emphasises the principle of value-for-money, in
particular with regard to how Public-Private Partnerships are handled.
Germany uses an
iterative approach, whereby capital investment projects are subject to increasing levels of
scrutiny of their overall societal cost/benefit and various financing options. With the active
participation of parliament, political preferences are brought to bear upon project
selection.
13. A “Stability Council” handles the co-ordination of fiscal policy among the
entities of government at federal and sub-national level.
Germany’s Basic Law provides
for the autonomy of the federation and the 
Länder
on budgetary matters, for the sharing of
national revenues and for the co-ordination of budgetary policy to ensure compliance with
EU economic governance rules. The Stability Council brings together the ministers of
finance from federal and 
Länder
levels, along with the federal minister of economics, to
discuss budgetary matters and conduct mutual budgetary surveillance. As a forum for peer
discussion, the Council has no formal enforcement powers. The full rigours of the debt
brake rule do not apply to the 
Länder
until 2020; they are in a transitional phase at present
whereby a number of 
Länder
, with unbalanced fiscal positions, must commit to a multi-
annual consolidation path in exchange for federal budgetary assistance.