According to the draft, from 2024 onwards, every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent green energy.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The timetable for passing the heating law in the Bundestag, which is also controversial in the coalition, is becoming more and more shaky. The traffic light groups agreed on Tuesday not to discuss the draft in the first reading in Parliament this week. “With good will, we can still pass the law by the summer,” said the parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast. The coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP had actually already agreed on this.
The FDP had questioned the date and is pushing for a complete revision. In circles of the FDP parliamentary group it was said that the framework conditions were not right, that the draft law was defective in many respects and was still a long way from being ready for parliament. This jeopardizes the goal of getting the law through Parliament before the summer recess.
The parliamentary summer recess begins on July 7th, until then there are three more weeks of sessions. “Now it’s Parliament’s turn,” said Mast. There are already preparatory talks in the coalition this week. People rightly demanded clarity about how to proceed with the heating. “The SPD parliamentary group only agrees to the law if heating remains affordable,” emphasized Mast.
According to the draft already approved by the Federal Cabinet, from 2024 onwards every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent green energy. This should apply to all owners up to the age of 80. Existing oil and gas heating systems can continue to be operated, and broken ones can be repaired.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the changeover is to be cushioned socially by funding – the details are, however, controversial. The law is considered an important component of the plan to make Germany climate-neutral by 2045.
Greens criticize the FDP’s approach to the heating law
The Greens had warned the FDP not to put the building energy law on the agenda of the Bundestag this week. The criticism of the coalition partner is correspondingly great. “The unreliability at this point is astonishing,” said Green Party leader Britta Haßelmann on Tuesday. She reminded that the schedule had been agreed with the FDP chairman Christian Lindner.
>> Read here: “100 more questions for Habeck” – new traffic light dispute about the heating law
“I expect the FDP to end their blockade now,” emphasized Hasselmann. If the law is not discussed in the next week of meetings, the federal government’s ability to act and the ability of the traffic light coalition to work would be damaged.
In fact, the parliamentarians will already be talking about the heating law in plenary this week, although it will not make it to the first reading. As the parliamentary administration announced on Tuesday, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group applied for a current hour on the “Federal government’s heating plans”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had recently urged speed. Scholz expects “that the Bundestag will now discuss the draft law with the necessary thoroughness, but also quickly,” said his spokesman on Monday.
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