Rhineland-Palatinate Finance Minister Doris Ahnen (SPD): “The budgets of the states cannot raise such amounts”
Photo: Fredrik von Erichsen / picture alliance / dpa
The federal states want to co-finance the federal government's third relief package on the energy crisis, but report the need for negotiations because of the cost sharing.
According to the previous plans, states and municipalities should contribute a total of almost 20 billion annually, said the chairwoman of the finance ministers' conference and Rhineland-Palatinate finance minister Doris Ahnen (SPD) on Thursday after a meeting with her state colleagues in Berlin.
"The budgets of the federal states cannot raise such amounts without there being a lasting impairment of the financing of the other necessary tasks."
At the beginning of September, the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP decided on a third relief package worth 65 billion euros for 2022 and 2023, in which the federal states should also participate.
Ahnen spoke of an annual volume of around 40 billion euros for the years 2023 and 2024, of which the federal states and municipalities should contribute almost half.
According to the finance minister, the federal states alone will face costs totaling a good 28 billion euros over the next two years.
On September 28, the prime ministers want to talk to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) about financing.
"The finance ministers of the federal states have jointly determined that the federal states have a legitimate right to a fair distribution of the costs of the measures planned by the federal government," said Ahnen.
It must now be a question of “agreeing on a fair distribution of the burden” in negotiations with the federal government.
til/dpa