Berlin The federal and state governments are largely in agreement on how they want to relieve consumers and companies in the face of high energy prices and inflation. This emerges from a consented draft resolution for the top meeting between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Ministers, which is available to the Handelsblatt.
In the past two weeks, all parties had negotiated intensively and also used the past weekend and the two public holidays at the beginning of the week to clarify how they want to finance the planned relief. “That’s why we have the chance to finally agree on larger financial policy issues between the federal and state governments today,” said the chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference, the Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD), before the meeting on Wednesday. “At some point discussions have to be decided.” The time is ripe for this.
In fact, the federal states were able to agree on a joint draft resolution among themselves, as was the head of the Federal Chancellery with the heads of the state chancellery. In contrast to previous top rounds, there are no longer any unclear points. Rather, all critical discussion points are linked to clear financial commitments.
The federal and state governments are still struggling to help oil customers
At the beginning of September, the traffic light coalition had caused plenty of conflict when it presented a 65 billion euro relief package, of which the federal states were supposed to shoulder almost half without being asked. The federal states then asked for relief elsewhere.
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This should now exist. This includes help for medium-sized companies as well as for hospitals and care facilities. The federal government is now ready to provide up to twelve billion euros from the “Economic Stabilization Fund”, eight billion of which for hospitals and care facilities alone. The important municipal profit-makers, the municipal utilities, should also be able to obtain loans when they need money. However, shortly before the meeting, it became known that the countries should participate. “We still have to talk about that,” said the vice-chairman of the conference, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst (CDU).
In principle, the federal government is responding to the demands of the federal states as part of its 200 billion euro aid package for energy price brakes. They had complained about a “winter gap”, since the planned gas price brake should only apply from March 2023 – and thus after the most heating-intensive months. The agreed version now says: “Retroactivity to February 1, 2023 is sought.” In December, the federal government will take over the payments on account of all gas and district heating customers. The only open question is what the aid for January should look like. This back and forth cannot be conveyed, said Prime Minister Weil. There may be alternatives that would not require the energy companies’ billing systems to be laboriously converted. Customers could “simply not pay” the discount, for example for January and February.
>> Also read here: Relief in the energy crisis threatens a price-stimulus spiral
The countries had also called for relief for households and companies that use oil. Wüst spoke of a “justice gap”. Here, the federal government is now offering a regulation within the framework of a hardship fund. The federal states governed by the Union are demanding a reduction in sales tax.
The federal states are basically more than satisfied with the sum from the hardship fund, but not with the refugee costs. The countries are expecting almost 16 billion euros for this year and next, as more refugees than in the crisis year 2015 have already arrived – and not only from Ukraine.
The federal government provided two billion euros in the spring and now wants to contribute a further 1.5 billion euros. In 2023 it should be 2.75 billion euros. The federal and state governments want to talk at least “about further developments” in Easter 2023. The federal government has recognized that it has to contribute to the refugee costs on a permanent basis, the state side said with satisfaction.
The 49-euro ticket comes as a “Deutschlandticket”
The federal camps are also largely in agreement on the question of launching a successor model for the summer discount ticket in local transport. There should be a “digital Deutschlandticket valid throughout Germany” from 2023. Since the new discount campaign for a 49-euro ticket will tear deep holes in the coffers of the transport companies, the federal government is transferring 1.5 billion euros to the federal states, which are to inject an amount of the same amount again. “It’s an introductory price. The price will rise,” said Wüst.
What is more important to the states, however, is that the federal government, after much hesitation, is also prepared to provide one billion euros more a year for local transport. The regionalization funds with which the federal states order bus and train lines will be around eleven billion euros in the future.
They should also increase by three percent annually instead of the previous 1.8 percent, thus cushioning inflation. The federal states, however, had demanded at least 1.5 billion euros extra and this already in 2022. They fear that the transport companies would otherwise have to discontinue transport offers.
>> Also read here: What is known so far about the 49-euro ticket
The federal government has shown no accommodation at all with the planned housing benefit reform. With it, the federal government wants to increase the rent subsidy for the needy and expand the circle of beneficiaries from 640,000 households to two million. The federal states are to bear half of the costs of four billion euros, which they have so far rejected.
An “overall package” is being negotiated that will not fail at a single point, it was said in the run-up to the consultations. Citizens now need security for the winter. “Crisis needs clarity,” Wüst had demanded.
More: How relief from the gas price brake should be taxed