Aufbau eines fondsbasierten „Generationenkapitals“ – staats- und unionsrechtliche Zulässigkeit der Rentenfinanzierung über einen Aktienfonds

The establishment of a sovereign wealth fund to build up “generational capital” is associated with legal imponderables. In principle, the German federal state can set up a foundation under public law to operate the fund with resources allocated to it as loans from the federal budget. However, if the federal state itself takes out loans to finance the foundation, this would be problematic from a constitutional point of view. As far as the protection of fair competition is concerned, it is unlikely that the fund will be systemically relevant and thus benefit from an implicit state guarantee. However, care must be taken to ensure that the fund receives its resources from the federal budget on market terms and that the resources supplied to the fund are also used on market terms. Otherwise, serious problems would arise under EU state aid law. The fact that the fund acts in the interests of the pension insurance scheme would not allow for an exception or justification.