Before the transport ministers' conference, federal states are putting pressure on transport minister Wissing. Does the debt brake have to be relaxed for important projects?
Münster - Battered streets, dilapidated bridges and an unpunctual, broken railway: the German transport infrastructure is in bad shape. For the federal states, the solution is obvious: they need more money. Before the transport ministers' conference this week, several federal states, at the request of
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are calling for greater investments from the federal government - and even a suspension of the debt brake for important transport projects. But FDP decision-maker Volker Wissing has other plans.
Wissing likes to talk about an infrastructure fund these days. This could pool financial resources for the expansion of railways, roads and waterways. When asked how the fund should be financed, a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport recently said that it was not about the “short-term weakening of the debt brake”, but about the “big question of how we finance our infrastructure in the long term”. But there doesn't seem to be a simple answer to this big question.
Federal states criticize “ideological adherence to the debt brake”
Several federal states are calling for a rethink on the subject. “The ideological adherence to the principle of the debt brake can prove to be an obstacle to development,” said the Left-led Thuringia
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. Several SPD states are also putting pressure on it. Lower Saxony's government under Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) says: "Especially in the transport sector, the debt brake must not become a brake on the mobility transition."
The Saarland Ministry of Transport explained: “The debt brake is increasingly becoming a brake on investments and thus a brake on the future. It therefore urgently needs to be modernized and adapted to the current challenges.” Otherwise, the renovation backlog threatens to create a “massive mortgage for future generations”. Bremen argued similarly: “It is necessary to suspend the debt brake, because an infrastructure that is no longer functional is a greater burden for the coming generation than higher national debt.”
State minister complains: “We have the most dilapidated rail network in Germany”
From Saxony it is said that the question of a possible easing of the debt brake is “rightly being increasingly discussed”. However, this discussion should not only concentrate on the transport sector. In Dresden, the CDU is in charge - but the transport minister is the SPD politician Martin Dulig. Hamburg's Transport Senator Anjes Tjarks (Greens) called for an “economically sensible proposal on how we can finance our transport projects and transport infrastructure in the long term”. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania welcomed investment announcements, but is still uncertain how this can be achieved.
Schleswig-Holstein is also divided. “The debt brake is good and right in itself, but in its current form it makes crisis management more difficult,” says CDU Transport Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen and complains about the poor state of infrastructure in his federal state: “We have the most dilapidated rail network in Germany, in the northern Baltic Sea Canal urgently needs to be invested and we have been waiting for the further construction of the A 20 for 30 years.”
Bayern criticism of the Wissing plan: “budgetary sleight of hand”
Unsurprisingly, Rhineland-Palatinate is against easing the debt brake. Here the FDP, which is also pro-debt brake in the federal government, leads the Ministry of Transport. Brandenburg's CDU-led transport ministry is also skeptical. “We are critical of a general weakening of the debt brake.” But more money is needed from the federal government. “The debate about an infrastructure fund is important and should be pursued further.”
Bavaria is less convinced of the current plan. “Transportation Minister Wissing is now required to present a proposal that has substance,” said CSU Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter to our editorial team. “But I fear it’s just a new traffic light budgetary sleight of hand.”
Conference leader Krischer: “We must not repeat the mistakes of the past”
For the chairman of the Conference of Transport Ministers, North Rhine-Westphalia's Green Party Minister Oliver Krischer, it is clear that investments must be made in transport. “We must not repeat the mistakes of the past, as was the case from the 1990s onwards,” Krischer told
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. “Money was also tight and savings were made primarily on maintenance investments. This is taking its toll today and we are paying the price for the failed investment policies of the past.”
Krischer rated the current proposals positively. “I expressly support Federal Transport Minister Wissing’s concept of financing the maintenance and expansion of the transport infrastructure with the help of an infrastructure fund,” said the Transport Minister. “I would be happy if we could talk about it at the upcoming transport ministers’ conference and perhaps even make decisions.”
The agenda for the conference taking place on April 17th and 18th is already available to
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. The topic is, among other things, the “effect of cuts in the 2024 federal budget” on transport projects. At the most recent transport ministers' conference, a lot revolved around the Deutschlandticket. After a long dispute, the countries were able to agree that the price would remain constant for 2024. What things will look like in the future is questionable. The states are discussing a “concept for implementing the Deutschlandticket from 2024”.
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