In the dispute over the distribution of costs for the accommodation and care of the refugees, the countries have agreed on a common position. Shortly before the refugee summit on Wednesday in the Chancellery, the positions of the federal and state governments differ considerably. The F.A.Z. has the paper on which the heads of the state chancelleries had agreed on Monday evening. The passage on "shared financial burden-bearing" begins with the statement that "the migratory movements of recent years have been a lasting development". From the point of view of the countries, what is needed is a financing model that adapts to changing numbers of refugees. "In view of the major challenges, states and municipalities need more planning security," the draft resolution states.
Helene Bubrowski
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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The states are now calling for a "breathing system", the concrete support from the federal government should be based on the actual number of refugees, not be compensated with a lump sum. This was also the rule in the years after the refugee crisis of 2015/2016. According to the idea of the federal states, the federal government should take over the following items according to the "proven 4-pillar model": the full reimbursement of the costs for accommodation and heating according to the Social Security Code, the payment of a general, refugee-related monthly per capita lump sum for accommodation and care according to the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act, the costs for the integration of all refugees and the costs for unaccompanied minors.
Last November, the federal government had promised the states the amount of 2.75 billion euros for the current year. Of this, 1.5 billion euros are to be used for refugees from Ukraine, and 1.25 billion euros are to be made available for refugees from other countries. According to the ideas of the federal government, only this contribution is to be paid in the coming years. According to the calculations in the Federal Chancellery, however, the sum of the actual support is much higher. If one includes, among other things, the benefits for the citizen's allowance to which Ukrainians are entitled, the Chancellery comes to a total of 15.6 billion euros. However, in a so-called "non-paper" on Sunday evening, the finance ministers of the federal states question the correctness of these calculations.
The federal states and the municipal umbrella associations had repeatedly pointed out that the federal government's previous funds were not sufficient. The situation in many municipalities is tense, and the situation is often described as "more dramatic" than in 2015. This is not only due to the more than one million refugees from Ukraine who have entered the country since the beginning of the war of aggression in February 2022, but also to the recent sharp increase in the number of people seeking protection from other countries. In the first four months of this year, first-time asylum applications increased by 78.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
The countries were put off several times. A summit meeting at the Federal Ministry of the Interior in mid-February ended disappointingly from the point of view of the states, because Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) had no offer other than the establishment of working groups to improve the processes between the federal, state and local governments. That is why expectations were very high for the Conference of Minister-Presidents, which was supposed to take place during the Easter period. In addition, in the states, including the SPD-led ones, there is great frustration with the negotiating style of the Chancellery, which is described as "arrogant". The federal government, however, has so far shown no signs of abandoning its position on the question of financing.