Germany: No federal-state agreement on energy crisis aid packages

No agreement between her German federal government and the states on the management of aid packages for energy crisis the chancellor’s conference ended Olaf Solz with the state premiers.

However, Mr. Soltz said he was confident that eventually an alliance would emerge which would be able to deal effectively with the situation.

The chancellor referred to the government’s early efforts to achieve energy security for the winter amid the war in Ukraine. These measures, he said, “probably” guarantee security of energy supply for Germany, even if there is absolutely no supply of Russian natural gas. But the prices must fall for the whole EU, Mr. Soltz emphasized and spoke of the planned ceiling on the maximum price of natural gas and electricity. Together with the other support packages, the total aid amount will reach 295 billion euros, he noted, of which 240-250 billion will be paid by the federation, however, the way to distribute the burdens has not yet been settled.

On the state side, the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stefan Weil (SPD), described the talks as “very constructive”, but cited as a serious pending measure the successor to the single ticket of 9 euros per month for all public transport.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wust (CDU) said, however, that “despite the constructive attitude of the heads of state governments, the federal government has shown limited willingness to compromise.” Mr. Wust specifically focused on the fact that, as he said, there is still no clear picture of how the gas price ceiling measure will work. The states are willing to co-finance these measures, but a fair sharing of the burdens is necessary, he stressed. “We are still far from the goal,” he said characteristically.

The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretzmann (Greens) also expressed his disappointment and said that he had hoped that there would be some progress today, but it was denied.