At the refugee summit, there was no basic agreement on funding for the municipalities. Criticism comes from the opposition and the counties.
The German Association of Cities assessed the resolutions of the federal and state refugee summit as completely inadequate. “All in all, this meeting was quite a disappointment for us,” said City Council President Markus Lewe of the “Rheinische Post”. The additional one billion euros promised by the federal government for this year is not “what the cities need”.
The German district association lamented the “overall disappointing summit result”. The federal and state governments “should have at least cleared up the finances,” said association president Reinhard Sager to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “If individual points are to be worked out further by the summer and then decided in November, that suggests we don’t have time.”
At their refugee summit on Wednesday, the federal and state governments had not made a fundamental decision about permanently higher federal funds for the accommodation and care of those seeking protection. However, the federal government will increase the refugee allowance to the federal states by one billion euros for 2023. The joint decision goes on to say that a working group will prepare this decision. Read all the details that were decided at the refugee summit here.
Also the Refugee organization Pro Asyl has sharply criticized the fact that the federal and state governments want to campaign for asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders. Pro Asyl was “shocked that the summit led to a financial agreement at the expense of the human rights of people fleeing,” said Pro Asyl’s legal spokesman, Wiebke Judith, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
“Detention centers on the EU’s external borders are the recipe for a human rights disaster,” criticized Judith and demanded that the federal government “urgently return to a human rights-based policy”. It is to be hoped “that the same debate will not rage in a few weeks – because this public discussion was grist for the right-wing populists’ mills,” she complained.
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Wüst: There was nothing else in it
According to the words of the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) for the municipalities is not yet sufficient. The fact that the federal government has agreed to increase the refugee allowance to the federal states by one billion euros this year is helpful, said Wüst on Wednesday evening after the refugee summit in Berlin. However, it is not sufficient for the municipalities because it is only a one-off payment.
“More was just not in it,” said Wüst. “You have to say that so clearly today.” The federal states have not yet received an answer to the central question of a permanently higher participation by the federal government. For example, there was no agreement on the full assumption of the costs for accommodation and heating for refugees by the federal government, which the federal states and local authorities wanted. The questions about higher cost sharing for integration and for underage refugees are also open. Nevertheless, the additional billion should be recognized by the federal government.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) sees a first partial success for the states after the federal-state summit on refugee costs. “We agree that taking in refugees is an ongoing task, and we also agree that we need a financing system for this,” said Schwesig on Wednesday after the refugee summit in Berlin. From her point of view, the federal government has recognized that higher refugee numbers must result in higher grants.
Because the discussion is not over yet
Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil stressed after the federal and state refugee summit that, from the point of view of the states, further financing issues still need to be clarified. “The discussion is not over, it will be continued in great depth,” said the SPD politician. After the consultations on Wednesday in Berlin, however, he was confident that further results would be achieved.
