Public debt, the debt brake, special funds, European financing instruments, contingent liabilities and the limits of public budgetary management: these are issues that are currently of fundamental importance not only politically, but also legally, economically and institutionally, and which are closely linked in many ways to business and tax law. These issues were discussed on 11 June 2026 at a joint symposium organised by the Ulm Colloquium on Business and Tax Law at the Ulm University and the Augsburg Forum for Tax Law at the University of Augsburg, held at Schloss Reisensburg. The focus was not on day-to-day political assessments, but on issues of transparency, democratic accountability, parliamentary scrutiny and the sustainability of public financial structures in Germany and Europe. The conference was rich in the diversity of perspectives, thanks to the fruitful legal discourse and the insights into the views and practices of the courts of audit. At the same time, the discussions demonstrated that the debate on public debt is always also a debate on budgetary clarity, public-sector accounting and institutional accountability.
