The tripartite led by Scholz has chosen to confront the energy crisis head on. /
The Scholz Government demands a reform of the European electricity market
The German government coalition has reached an agreement for a third package of aid and subsidies for a total volume of 65,000 million euros with which to relieve citizens of the high price of energy and high inflation. The tripartite of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) reached an agreement for a wide range of measures very advanced this morning, after long hours of negotiations behind closed doors at the Federal Chancellery that had begun at noon on Saturday.
The package of measures “discharges all households, also pensioners, students and apprentices,” says the agreed document, which includes a single financial aid of 200 euros per student and 300 euros for each retiree. Increases in aid for those without income, housing and heating subsidies and child premiums are listed in the catalogues, as well as the establishment of a cheaper price for a basic supply of electricity for households. This will be financed through supplementary rates to the disproportionate profits of the energy companies.
“This is about leading our country safely through the crisis,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a press conference with the presidents of the three parties of the government coalition, the Social Democrat Saskia Esken, the Green Omnid Nouripour, and the Liberal Christian Lindner, also Federal Minister of Finance. “We take all the concerns” of citizens very, very seriously in the face of the sharp increase in the cost of living, said Scholz, who once again reiterated the motto in English “You’ll never walk alone” and assured that “we will not leave no one alone.”
The head of the Berlin government stressed that this third package of measures to deal with the energy crisis and the effects of high inflation is greater than the previous two combined. The sum of the three reaches a volume of 95,000 million euros. “It is a lot that we move, but it is necessary,” said Scholz.
The Federal Chancellor commented that in order to relieve citizens of high energy prices, he intends to press within the European Union for a reform of the market in this sector. He proposed exhausting the so-called casual profits of extraordinarily lucrative energy companies, even exclusively at the national level if no agreement is reached in Brussels.
Brake to the price of electricity
“In the event that the measures currently being discussed in Europe are not agreed upon and applied soon, the federal government will do so on its own to unload consumers,” highlights the document signed by the German government tripartite. With the rates on those benefits considered exaggerated, Berlin wants to finance what it calls a “brake on the price of electricity.” In this way “private households will have a certain amount of power at a cheaper price for basic consumption,” says the text of the agreement.
The parties of the executive led by the Social Democrat Scholz also agreed on a model to succeed the single nine-euro monthly ticket for all local public transport in the country, which has been in force in Germany for three months until the end of August and of which they sold more than 52 million units.
Although they do not set a price for the new single ticket, the pact establishes “the provision of the federal government to contribute 1,500 million euros for a single commuter ticket at the national level if the federated states contribute at least the same amount.” The goal is to create an “attractive price ticket” that will allow you to use all local public transport in Germany with a monthly payment of between 49 and 69 euros.
The transport ministers of the Berlin government and the 16 federal states have already started negotiations to carry out the initiative, after the overwhelming success of the summer experiment.