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No higher license fee - but will it stay that way?

2021-01-21T14:08:30.934Z


For the time being, the license fee will not increase. Proceedings are underway at the Federal Constitutional Court, a decision is not in sight.


For the time being, the license fee will not increase.

Proceedings are underway at the Federal Constitutional Court, a decision is not in sight.

Update from January 21, 2021:

What happens to the

radio contributions

in Germany?

Many citizens ask this in the New Year.

Here is an

overview of the current situation:

For the time being, the license fee * will not increase.

Proceedings are underway at the

Federal Constitutional Court

, a decision is not foreseeable, as the German Press Agency (dpa, as of January 15) last reported.

In December, the

government of Saxony-Anhalt,

against the will of all other countries, blocked the increase in the radio license fee in Germany from EUR 17.50 per month to EUR 18.36 as of January 1, 2021.

ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio immediately sued the Federal Constitutional Court.

Urgent requests were received before the end of the year


Court rejected, there is still no decision on the main issue, as dpa further reported.

Report: FDP politician Markwort proposes an alternative to increasing the broadcasting fees

For the Bavarian FDP member of the state parliament and Focus founder

Helmut Markwort,

there is an

alternative to increasing the radio contributions

, as

Focus Online

writes.

According to Markwort, a few measures would lead to considerable savings and thus lower broadcasting fees for everyone - if they were to be done, the report continues.

Specifically, Markwort calls for more cooperation among the public broadcasters.

The 84-year-old sees another alternative in the abolition of smaller channels, it says on

focus.de

.

"According to the FDP politician, the smaller broadcasters would have to double their spending in order to continue to exist as an independent broadcaster," reports the portal.

Also read:

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Broadcasting license fee: Saxony-Anhalt blocks contribution plus - Haseloff withdraws contract

Update from December 8, 2020:

Saxony-Anhalt is blocking the increase in the broadcasting fee

in Germany.

This is reported by the German Press Agency (dpa), among others.

Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) withdraws the draft law on the state treaty before the decisive vote in parliament, as the state chancellery announced on Tuesday, according to the dpa.

Without the green light from all countries by the end of the year, the contract and premium increases will not come into force, according to the news agency.

You can read more current developments on the dispute here.

Countries do not consider renegotiating the license fee to be useful

Update from December 3, 2020: The plan is

for the

broadcasting

fee to

increase

from

January 1, 2021

from EUR 17.50 per month to EUR 18.36

.

But this requires the

approval of all federal states

in the matter

,

as it says in a report by the German Press Agency (dpa), among other things.

In Saxony-Anhalt,

however, according to reports, there is

a deadlocked dispute in the black-red-green coalition

over whether the broadcasting fee should be increased.

The CDU is against it - the SPD and the Greens are in favor *.

The state chiefs hope,

as dpa reported on Wednesday evening

, that despite this coalition dispute in Magdeburg there is still approval from Saxony-Anhalt for the future broadcast contribution

.

All countries agree that they hope for a "good decision", said Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) according to dpa after a meeting of the heads of government of the federal and state governments on Wednesday.

At the same time, he emphasized

that the federal states see no need to renegotiate the level of the broadcasting fee again

.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU parliamentary group had therefore brought the renegotiations into play in the state parliament based on proposals from the state chancellery

and referred to the corona pandemic.

In the coming week, the media committee in the state parliament in Magdeburg could make a decision that would be groundbreaking for the vote in the state parliament in the middle of the month, as dpa also reported.

You can also read:

This is how much child benefit there will be from January - parents should be aware of that now

Saxony-Anhalt: Left wants to agree to a higher broadcast fee

Update from November 11, 2020:

After much deliberation, Die Linke wants to

approve

the

planned increase in the broadcasting

fee

in the

Magdeburg state parliament

.

This was reported by the German Press Agency (dpa) on Tuesday evening (November 10th).

The 16-member parliamentary group unanimously agreed to this position at a meeting on Tuesday, as the media policy spokesman and state chief Stefan Gebhardt announced on Tuesday, according to dpa.

The reason for the yes are constitutional considerations.

In addition, the

Corona crisis *

once again made it clear how important public broadcasting is in times of fake news and conspiracy theories, Gebhardt said.

A representative survey on behalf of the left-wing parliamentary group recently showed that 73 percent of Saxony-Anhalters felt well informed by the public authorities in the pandemic.

The radio license fee is set to rise - but the plan could fail due to a veto from Saxony-Anhalt

On the recommendation of the independent commission for the determination of financial needs (KEF), it is

planned that the license fee will increase by 86 cents from 17.50 euros to 18.36 euros per month on January 1, 2021

.

All state parliaments must agree to this, and many have already done so.

But the plan threatens

to fail because of

the veto from

Saxony-Anhalt

: While the SPD and the Greens have already signaled their approval, the largest opposition party, the AfD, and the largest ruling party, the CDU, reject the increase, as the dpa report continues.

The two parliamentary groups have more than half of the votes in the state parliament.

Further negotiations and debates are currently ongoing, as dpa reported.

In mid-December there should be the decisive vote.

You can also read:

Why it is worthwhile to appeal against the tax assessment

State Secretary: If you say no to the license fee, you have to expect lawsuits

Update from October 21, 2020:

For households in Germany, the monthly

broadcast

fee

* could increase

from 17.50 euros to 18.36 euros

.

But it is still unclear whether all state parliaments will agree to this.

In Saxony-Anhalt there has been criticism from the CDU parliamentary group for a long time about a contribution increase that is part of the black-red-green coalition, reported the German press agency (dpa).

There is also resistance from the opposition there.

Therefore, it is unclear what the outstanding result in the state parliament will look like.

All country leaders and all national parliaments must agree to an increase.

Despite the

headwind from Saxony-Anhalt,

the Rhineland-Palatinate media state secretary Heike Raab hoped for the approval of all state parliaments for a higher broadcast fee, reported dpa on October 19.

“Now we are in a broad debate that I can understand very well.

Nevertheless, I hope that we will cross the finish line with all 16 countries, ”the SPD politician told the German Press Agency.

She added: In the event that a federal state does not agree, the states would have to expect lawsuits from public broadcasters.

Also read

: Will the Christmas bonus be paid earlier this year?

Country bosses sign contract for higher broadcasting fee (formerly GEZ)

Update from June 17, 2020: 

The Prime Ministers have signed the State Treaty to increase the

broadcasting

fee from 17.50 euros to 18.36 euros, according to dpa information.

This cleared the way at their meeting in Berlin on Wednesday for the still necessary votes in all state parliaments on an increase, as the German Press Agency also reported.

The

radio license 

fee would thus increase again for the first time since 2009.

But only when all country leaders and all country parliaments agree, the amount can be changed, the report says.

The whole thing could then come into force in January 2021.

However, the state parliament of

Saxony-Anhalt

is currently considered a

shaky candidate

, as dpa continues to report, there is headwind from the parliamentary groups of the CDU, Left and AfD.

The Prime Ministers had already decided in March that the monthly contribution should increase by 86 cents to 18.36 euros.

At that time, Saxony-Anhalt was the only federal state to abstain.

Now Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) has also signed, but with the note that he cannot currently

guarantee

a majority for it in the

Magdeburg state parliament

, as the "Tagesschau" reported on Wednesday.

Advice on the broadcast amount (formerly GEZ)

Article from March 12th, 2020

: The

license

fee

 could be increased from the beginning of 2021.

That was the result of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK) of the federal states on March 12, 2020, according to information from the State Chancellery of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The commission to determine the financial needs of broadcasters (KEF) recommended an increase * several weeks ago after

a financial gap of the broadcasters

of as much as 1.5 billion euros was found.

The license fee could be increased: therefore it would almost have been more

Currently, a

 monthly

broadcast

fee

of

17.50 euros is

payable.

This would then - if everyone votes for it in the end - increased by

86 cents

, so that theoretically a whopping

18.36 euros

could

already be

incurred

from January 1, 2021

.

Before that happens, the state parliaments must first ratify the decision made by the conference of prime ministers.

In fact, the contributors almost got hit harder: Previously, the broadcasters demanded an additional sum of

three billion euros

for the contribution period from 2021 to 2024

.

If this wish had come true, it would have increased to 19.20 euros per month *.

But where does the money actually go?

In addition to series and film productions *, the maintenance of station archives and research projects,

ARD

,

ZDF

& Co. also

have to pay

for the pensions of the employees - and these are increasing every year *.

Also read

: Radio license fee - How to get rid of the costs legally.

The license fee could be increased again after several years

As the news agency AFP reports, the money is also necessary for the success of the digital transformation.

In addition, Prime Minister

Malu Dreyer

of the

SPD

notes

: "The contribution has not been increased for eleven years."

In fact, it was cut by as much as 48 cents in 2015.

The state government later asked the broadcasters to take austerity measures.

(soa / ahu) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network.

Also interesting

: Broadcasting fee 2019: Why you better not pay it in cash.

Video: Radio license exemption - what matters and how it works

Also interesting:

Pay by card in the supermarket: be careful, it can get that expensive

Because of a controversial satire video, a CDU politician wants to overturn the increase in the radio license.

* merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digiatal editorial network

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2021-01-21

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