Status: 02.11.2022 08:02
Gas price brake, 49-euro ticket, housing benefit or refugee care: Before the federal-state summit, there is great pressure to reach an agreement this time. Both sides are cautiously optimistic.
In the morning, the 16 heads of government of the federal states will consult among themselves, in the afternoon they will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). Negotiations between the federal and state governments over billions in relief should not be easy. Because there are some contentious issues: the electricity and gas price brake, the housing benefit reform, the 49-euro local transport ticket and the distribution of costs for the accommodation of refugees. .
Yesterday, the Chancellery sent a draft resolution to the federal states. At the previous meeting in early October, the federal and state governments had parted ways without agreement. Immediately before today’s deliberations, several heads of government spoke up with their demands, but also with compromise signals.
Wüst: “Crisis needs clarity”
“People expect us to deliver results,” said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst in a joint statement morning magazine from ARD and ZDF. “Crisis needs clarity and I am confident that we will also deliver results,” said the CDU politician. Compared to the last round in October, they are now well prepared
But there are still points of contention, said Wüst, for example with subsidies for oil or pellet heating: “The federal government now at least recognizes that there is a problem and wants hardship solutions. However, you have to take a very close look at how many people are affected and when benefit.” In his state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, a quarter of the people have oil heating.
Dreyer: The federal and state governments must pull together
The head of government in Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, also struck a diplomatic tone: “With three relief packages and a special fund worth 200 billion euros for a gas price brake and also with the additional funds for refugee accommodation, the federal government has already taken important steps to reduce the burdens caused by Russia mitigate,” said the SPD politician to the editorial network Germany (RND): “It is crucial that the federal and state governments pull together here.” However, she is confident that the federal and state governments will come to a workable compromise on the distribution of costs.
The Hessian Prime Minister Boris Rhein, on the other hand, sees the traffic light coalition in Berlin as having an obligation. “The federal government has to move on Wednesday so that there can be an agreement,” said the CDU politician to the editorial network Germany (RND).
FDP parliamentary group deputy Christoph Meyer expects “from the prime ministers that the federal states finally give up their resistance to their share of the financing of the third relief package,” said. The federal states are tactical and, despite high tax revenues, are evading their responsibility – while citizens and companies are in urgent need of relief, Meyer told the dpa news agency.
Nationwide ticket for bus and train is getting closer
Citizens should be particularly interested in whether the federal and state governments can finally agree on a nationwide local transport ticket. Actually, there is already agreement that there should be a 49-euro ticket. But the federal states make permanently higher subsidies from the federal government a condition. As can be seen from the draft resolution, the federal government now wants to make a new offer to the states.
In any case, Chancellor Scholz was confident. The SPD politician said yesterday at a public dialogue in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, that an agreement had almost been reached with the federal states on such a “Germany ticket”. Today is the day “on which it should finally succeed.”
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) calls for a nationwide social ticket for a maximum of 29 euros per month. “The Federal Chancellor and Prime Minister urgently need to agree on how the 49-euro ticket should be financed in the future,” said DGB board member Stefan Körzell. Financing security until 2030 is important: the expansion of local public transport is only feasible with significant investments in new networks, vehicles and personnel.
bone of contention energy costs
Shortly before the meeting in the Chancellery, the federal government presented plans for a gas price brake. On the one hand, the state takes over the December discount with a one-off payment. In addition, the gas price for private customers is to be capped from March, if possible retrospectively to February. The March date is too late for the countries – it is unclear whether it is enough for them that the cheap price could apply retrospectively from February.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow called for the gas price cap to start on January 1st. “Particularly when it comes to capping energy costs, citizens urgently need to be reliable,” he told the Rheinische Post and Bonn’s “General-Anzeiger”. “It is our common task to limit concerns about energy poverty,” said the left-wing politician.
At the same time, he called for the federal government to regulate the price of oil. “Neither the fuel prices nor the heating oil prices have anything to do with the world crude oil price. In this special situation caused by the war, enough companies have shamelessly simply increased the prices,” said Ramelow on rbb24 Inforadio. “If you listen to the quarterly figures and the annual accounts of the big oil companies, then you can only be sad how shamelessly everything is pocketed.”
Controversy over housing benefit
It is still disputed how the significant expansion of housing allowances planned by the federal government is to be financed. So far, half of the housing allowance has been financed by the federal and state governments, but the states no longer want to participate.
The German Association of Cities called on the federal and state governments to come up with “viable solutions that do not burden the local authorities, but rather relieve them”. “It’s also about maintaining and strengthening the performance of the cities, especially in times of crisis,” said President Markus Lewe to the RND. He again called for more money for taking in refugees and for local transport, as well as a rescue package for public utilities in need.
The general manager of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, told the newspapers of the Funke media group: A binding commitment is needed that the federal and state governments would pay the municipalities “the costs for accommodation, supplies, additional daycare and school places and the integration work in full on a permanent basis finance”.