State Secretary: Missing money in the climate fund affects the East

Berlin (dpa) – According to the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner (Greens), the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget ruling particularly affects East Germany. If the missing 60 billion euros for the climate and transformation fund are not raised elsewhere, the East German economy could face significant damage, Kellner told the editorial network Germany (RND).

Of the announced investments in German industry of 80 billion euros, around 50 billion were in eastern Germany, said Kellner. “We are now faced with the huge challenge of securing these investments and the associated jobs and prosperity through government support.” Kellner emphasized that as things stand today, without the climate and transformation fund, neither the establishment of chip factories in Dresden and Magdeburg nor the reconstruction of the solar industry in East Germany would be secured.

The FDP finance and budget expert Frank Schäffler is calling for subsidies for the chip factories in Magdeburg and Dresden to be waived. “It has always been wrong to put billions in subsidies into setting up chip factories,” Schäffler told the RND. According to RND, Schäffler did not accept the argument for funding in disadvantaged regions: the planned locations of the chip factories, Magdeburg and Dresden, are not structurally weak areas. “On the contrary: there is a shortage of workers there,” said the FDP politician. “And the construction of chip factories would mean that local medium-sized companies would be left behind.”

DIW expert Claudia Kemfert believes that suspending the debt brake is justified by a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court made in 2021. According to a report by the “Mediengruppe Bayern”, she recommends a triad to realize the transformation in Germany: “First: cut spending in non-future areas. Secondly: examine unnecessary spending by the climate and transformation fund. Third: suspend the debt brake.”

The Federal Constitutional Court itself provided sufficient justification for this in its 2021 ruling by naming climate protection as the central task of the state, said Kemfert. In view of the climate crisis and economic transformation, Germany urgently needs future investments in electromobility, rail transport, digitalization, storage or building energy.