State and municipalities negotiate refugee costs

Created: 07/07/2022, 14:38

Refugees from Ukraine are waiting at the main gate of the state initial reception center in Sigmaringen.

© Felix Kästle/dpa/archive image

The state and local authorities want to start a new attempt at the end of next week in order to agree on the distribution of the costs for the approximately 100,000 Ukrainian war refugees.

The Joint Finance Commission will meet again on Friday in a week (July 15), the Ministry of Finance and the municipal associations in Stuttgart said on Thursday.

Stuttgart - According to reports, there is a certain rapprochement after getting stuck two weeks ago and separating without result.

It's about a cost of more than half a billion euros.

The financial talks are overshadowed by the Ukraine war and the corona pandemic.

The country fears that the economy and tax revenue will collapse this year and therefore intends to spend relatively little more.

City, community and district councils recently insisted on full assumption of costs by the state.

The background is that the first refugees will receive Hartz IV benefits from June 1st and will no longer be classified as asylum seekers.

The associations had calculated that this system change would mean that cities and municipalities would need a further financial requirement of 720 million euros this year.

The country estimates this sum to be somewhat lower.

dpa