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Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner sits during an interview.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa/archive image
Berlin's governing mayor has suggested alternatives to the special climate protection fund.
However, there is loud criticism of this from the coalition partner.
Berlin - There is clear criticism from the ranks of the SPD of Governing Mayor Kai Wegner's announcement that he will rely on partnerships with private investors to finance climate protection measures.
“Due to the bad experiences with public-private partnerships, the Berlin MPs have rightly put a stop to the use of this instrument,” said Social Senator Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD) to the German Press Agency.
SPD Senator: Don't repeat past mistakes
“The State Debt Brake Act stipulates that PPP debts are taken into account in the debt brake.” Wegner’s proposal therefore does not provide any scope for climate protection investments, but rather only plays into the hands of the privatization lobby.
“Following the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, we must pragmatically look for solutions to enable legally compliant climate protection investments,” she demanded.
This also includes borrowing from state companies, which Wegner also brought into discussion.
“However, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past,” Kiziltepe warned.
This included public-private partnerships, with which Berlin had extremely bad experiences, for example with the partial privatization of water companies.
“These were expensive and non-transparent models.”
Wegner had told the “Tagesspiegel” (Monday) that he could imagine that state-owned companies would play a central role in financing the planned extensive climate protection measures.
“You can use their options for external financing and to accelerate measures.”
Wegner is for public-private partnerships
But he also sees the participation of private investors as a contribution to solving the problem: “Public-private partnerships are an opportunity for Berlin that we should not let go,” he said.
However, there are no plans to sell state property to private investors.
“What is crucial for me is that public infrastructure in which we invest in this way remains in public ownership in the long term.”
The black-red Senate originally wanted to regulate this through a special fund for climate protection.
However, this is now considered difficult for legal reasons.
The question is what alternatives there are.
Talks with the Finance Senator are ongoing
The Governing Mayor wants to stick to the plans for significantly more investment in climate protection: “Our goals for the transformation of the energy supply, the electrification of transport and climate protection measures in existing buildings are correct and remain urgent.”
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“That’s why we’re sticking to our goals.
We are now in discussions with the Finance Senator and the coalition parties about how we can achieve this despite tight budgets and the ruling from Karlsruhe.” SPD party and parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh emphasized that his party does not yet have any on the subject of public-private partnerships Conversations given.
During the exploratory talks, the CDU and SPD agreed on a special climate protection fund initially worth five billion euros.
However, a report commissioned by the tax authorities came to the conclusion that the black-red plans could not be implemented at the federal level for legal reasons following the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on the debt brake.
dpa