The federal and state governments agree on this: civil protection and disaster control in Germany must be strengthened. How much money can flow for how quickly – but there is disagreement.
The federal and state governments have apparently not been able to agree on a sum of money for federal subsidies in the billion-euro dispute over funding for civil protection.
“We have a joint proposal for a resolution that we will adopt tomorrow in the plenum,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) in Würzburg, where the conference of interior ministers from the federal and state governments will meet until Friday. However, the proposal will not contain a sum. However, there is agreement that both the federal government and the states must make more efforts.
In the run-up, several states, including SPD-led Lower Saxony and CSU-led Bavaria, had demanded a sum of ten billion euros from the federal government over several years to strengthen civil defense and disaster control in Germany – also against the background of the experiences from the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley and the Russian war of aggression in the Ukraine. According to reports, the reconstruction of a siren system alone could cost a billion euros, the expansion of warning apps and a cell broadcasting system for nationwide mobile phone warnings could cost another 400 million.
Faeser had rejected the sum of ten billion euros in advance as too high. On Thursday, she said efforts should be made as needed. “It has to be realistic, because we’re talking about tax money,” said the minister.
Competence center for civil protection
The ministers had previously signed an agreement on the joint establishment of a civil protection competence center. The competence center is to be located at the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance in Bonn. The federal and state governments send experts. The aim is to prepare as best as possible for crises – from floods to the war in Ukraine.
“We create a joint picture of the situation, which means that the information is shared together,” said Faeser. In the event of damage, a joint decision should be taken as to how a disaster should be dealt with. “Of course it makes sense if a country is particularly often affected by flooding that it may then also take over the management or that the federal government provide help,” said the SPD politician.
Crime on the Internet: Union countries want to relax data protection
It remained questionable whether an agreement could be reached between the SPD-led and the Union-led countries to step up the fight against crime on the Internet. The chairman of the conference of interior ministers, Bavarian head of department Joachim Herrmann (CSU) and his North Rhine-Westphalian counterpart Herbert Reul (CDU) want to relax data protection so that IP addresses can be assigned to the identities of users in the future.
“The least we have to do is make sure that the IP addresses are clearly accessible, so that it is clear: who is the sender of certain messages,” said Herrmann. In an interview with “Welt”, Reul also called for IP addresses and other user data to be disclosed. “It is irresponsible what we are doing at the moment, that we leave the investigators alone,” said the CDU politician.
The deliberations of the conference of interior ministers continue on Friday morning in Würzburg. In the evening, several hundred people wanted to demonstrate in the city center against the asylum policy in Germany. The Würzburg Refugee Council and other organizations called for the uncertain status of toleration for refugees to be transformed into a perspective for those affected.
