German coalition agreement emerging

Berlin – Germany’s two main parties agreed on various issues in their final round of coalition talks Tuesday night, sending a signal that an agreement for forming Germany’s new government was emerging.

The negotiations were ongoing early Wednesday in Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian allies Christian Social Union (CSU) had agreed with its main rival Social Democratic Party (SPD) on introducing a national statutory minimum wage of 8.50 euros per hour from 2015, Xinhua quoted German Press Agency (DPA) as saying.

The amount of the minimum wage would be set regularly by a commission consisting of seven members from associations of employers and employees.

This was one o! f the core campaign targets of SPD, which was defeated in a federal ele! ction two months ago. Merkel’s conservative bloc of CDU and CSU failed to get a majority in the new parliament and had to find a partner in order to form a new government.

Both sides also agreed on a retirement age at 63 years after contributing pension for 45 years, as well as highway tolls for foreign autos.

An official agreement was expected to be released Wednesday. SPD has said that it would let its 470,000 members to decide whether to join a coalition government as it did in Merkel’s first term during 2005 and 2009.

A vote was scheduled to take place in SPD’s party conference in mid-December.