As of: 03/09/2023 3:26 p.m
Countries have been insisting for a long time that homeowners must insure themselves against storm damage. But the federal government remains guilty of clear rules. Now Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia are daring to make a new move in the Bundesrat.
Due to the expected increase in extreme weather phenomena, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg want to achieve nationwide compulsory insurance for natural hazards as part of a Federal Council initiative.
With a motion for a resolution, the federal government should be asked to develop a proposal for the introduction of a nationwide compulsory insurance, as announced by the state government in Stuttgart.
Only half of the owners are insured
According to information from Baden-Württemberg, the application should be submitted to the Bundesrat in a timely manner. The aim is for building owners to make compulsory private insurance against natural hazards across the board.
This should give owners better protection against financial damage after extreme weather such as heavy rain or flooding. According to the state government, only around half of private building owners nationwide have such insurance.
Kretschmann: “Immense financial follow-up costs”
From Baden-Württemberg it was said that the federal government had not yet taken sufficient action “to prepare for the storm season in summer”. Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann told the “Handelsblatt”: “Each further event causes high damage and immense financial consequential costs for the federal and state governments.”
Without a nationwide solidarity-based compulsory insurance, the state would not be able to cope with this in the long term. The head of government made it clear to the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” and the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” that too much time had already been lost. Storms didn’t wait for politicians – and they didn’t stop at national borders either.
Wüst: “No viable solutions”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst emphasized that the project was supported by all federal states. “In June 2022 we received a commitment from the Federal Chancellor to address the issue – but to date the federal government has not presented any viable solutions,” criticized Wüst.
Compulsory insurance must remain on the agenda. “It must not be that the topic is only on the agenda immediately after a catastrophe and then forgotten,” Wüst continued. Compulsory insurance for building owners should also relieve the federal and state coffers.
Because: “We must act”
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil announced that the topic should also be discussed in the Prime Ministers’ Conference on Thursday next week. He told the “Handelsblatt” that the federal states considered a nationwide introduction to be urgently necessary.
There are now numerous studies that predicted enormous damage from climate change in Germany. “We have to adapt and act – there is no time to lose.”
The background to the debate about compulsory insurance is the devastating flash flood in July 2021 in the Ahr Valley, which caused major damage. Last year, the heads of government of the federal states spoke out in favor of compulsory insurance and called on the federal government to draw up a specific regulation. However, the federal government had advocated regulations at state level.