Reiner Haseloff (CDU), Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, and Christian Lindner (FDP), Federal Minister of Finance, talk at the beginning of the federal-state summit in the Federal Chancellery. © Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) sees the results of the refugee summit of the federal and state governments as a partial success. "We have certainly taken a partial step. By that I don't just mean that we have brought in a billion compared to the original zero offer of the federal government for the municipalities," said Haseloff on Wednesday evening of the German Press Agency.
Berlin - For Saxony-Anhalt, this is almost 30 million euros.
Rather, the federal government has now acknowledged that this is an ongoing task, "because it is responsible for and in its hands for the framework conditions for immigration through border security yes/no, European coordination, Schengen area security and all sorts of things," said the Prime Minister. The states and municipalities have no competences in this regard.
The topic will be continued at the next Minister-Presidents' Conference in June. The goal of the states remains a permanent, per capita co-financing scheme of the federal government, said Haseloff. "We need to know what we will get in 2024 and in the following years, because we have to activate the budget from the middle of the year and deal with it in the state parliament from August so that we have everything wrapped up in December. And the municipalities must also be able to plan."
In view of the rising number of refugees and asylum seekers and the heavy burden on the host municipalities, the federal government will increase the refugee allowance to the states by one billion euros this year. This was announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) after the federal-state talks in Berlin. This is intended to support the states in providing additional relief for their municipalities and financing the digitization of the immigration authorities, according to the joint resolution of the federal and state governments.
The heads of government of the federal states had gone into the consultations on the consequences of the recent significant increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers with great unanimity. The federal states and municipalities want a stronger and permanent involvement of the federal government in financing the accommodation, care and integration of those seeking protection. The fundamental decision on permanently higher federal funds was postponed on Wednesday. Dpa
