8.12.2022 21:57 (act. 8.12.2022 22:00)
The 49 euro ticket for local transport will start in 2023 ©APA/dpa
The way has been paved for the introduction of the €49 ticket for millions of passengers on German local transport with buses and trains. After a long tug of war between the federal government and the federal states, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the German prime ministers clarified the latest financial issues on Thursday. “The passage through Germany will come now, also very quickly,” said Scholz. When exactly the new year begins, he left it open. Countries are targeting April 1st.
In their last major round in 2022, the federal and state governments also agreed on details of an emergency fund for companies in the energy crisis.
“All barriers have been removed, so those responsible in the federal states and transport companies can now do everything to make this happen quickly and efficiently,” explained Scholz. The president of the conference of prime ministers, Stephan Weil (SPD) of Lower Saxony, said that there is now an agreement for the costs incurred in 2023 to be “borne by half”. At the same time, he made it clear that countries aim to start by the end of the first quarter of 2023. It shouldn’t be “a matter of summer”.
The ticket for buses and trains on local transport, which can be used throughout Germany, will start at €49 per month and will be compatible with the popular €9 summer ticket. A digitally bookable and monthly terminated subscription is foreseen. However, many modalities still need to be clarified. There was a problem with the introduction, which had already been decided in principle, because a new financial dispute arose. The federal states expressed doubts about the calculations and demanded that the federal government also bear half of any additional costs. The federal and state governments had already agreed to each give half of up to three billion euros a year to make up for lost revenue.
The federal and state governments also agreed late on Thursday that the German government would provide the states with one billion euros for hardship regulations for small and medium-sized businesses to curb high energy prices. This should also help companies that heat with oil or wood pellets with country programs. However, the federal government still does not want any general relief for users of wood and oil heating systems, as the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst (CDU), had demanded. Chancellor Scholz just pointed out that there are hardship rules for people who can no longer pay their energy bills.
However, the federal and state upper round also postponed numerous decisions until next year. Wüst criticized the fact that the federal government had again removed from the agenda the topic of accelerating planning because of differences in the SPD, Verdes and FDP traffic light coalition. Relief for energy-intensive businesses, which Weil had called for, will also not be discussed until next year – as well as more federal aid in view of the growing number of refugees and migrants. “It’s like municipalities are attacking,” Weil said.
Prime ministers had previously criticized the fact that the federal government was not implementing the agreement with Chancellor Scholz to introduce mandatory natural hazard insurance against flood damage. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) rejected this, Prime Minister Wüst said. This was “surprising” because of the previous agreement with the chancellor. “We shouldn’t just put it back on the agenda when something happened,” he said, referring to the devastating floods in the Ahr Valley, for example. At that time, the federal government had stepped in for damages to uninsured homes.