The preliminary agreement between the federal and state governments in the dispute over migration costs is a far cry from what the states and municipalities had originally envisioned. They had already reduced their demands to the level that has now been agreed: a one-off one billion euros more from the federal government. However, they actually wanted to have at least doubled the already promised federal aid of 2.75 billion euros, as well as a "peak settlement" of refugee costs, i.e. a settlement based on the actual number of migrants, not a lump sum.

From the point of view of the prime ministers, the postponement is also a fundamental question – who should pay what in the future? –unsatisfying. In the refugee crisis after 2015, they were already further along. The agreements of that time provided for exactly what the municipalities now wanted to come back to, a assumption of the costs for the accommodation of the refugees for the time of extraordinary burdens by the federal government. Olaf Scholz, when he was still Federal Minister of Finance, according to the municipal umbrella associations, had promised to continue this practice. Nothing will come of it for the time being.

But even the federal government could not prevail. The Chancellery had not only delayed the meeting – twice Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) invited to the refugee summit without being able to talk about finances. The closer Wednesday's meeting came, the more persistently it pointed out the burdens on the federal government that already exist. It was also about fundamental issues: If the decisions that affect the tasks of the states are made in and only in Berlin, do the states have to watch how they pay for the consequences or is the federal government also obliged?

We can't agree, so we'll meet somewhere

The additional one billion euros that have now been agreed is little in view of the coalition's willingness to spend, but in view of the indomitability of the Chancellery, it is already a lot. One wonders, however, whether migration is worth so little to the coalition that it makes iron austerity its top priority on this issue. The sum is also a grab. It sounds like: we can't come to an agreement, so we'll meet somewhere, the main thing is that the dispute is off the table.

In any case, the chancellor acted according to the motto: Money is not everything. Far more space than finances was given to the asylum administration in the proposals from the Chancellery, and above all to the question of how deportations and repatriations (to the responsible EU states) can be better enforced. For years, both nationally and Europeanly, the less is possible here, the less credible the asylum policy is and the greater the resistance. What has now been agreed in Berlin all sounds very familiar: it should be faster, more effective, more consistent. So far, such attempts have failed due to reality. It should be the same this time.

We'll see each other again in the fall. It is not until November that the fundamental financial issues will be discussed. The lack of agreement on this issue only represents a whole range of unresolved conflicts in federal financial relations. In view of the history of this meeting, it is very unlikely that it will be possible to reach an agreement on this by autumn. And since this summit came too late, the postponement must be met with great incomprehension from the point of view of those directly affected, the cities and districts.

The German government's hope is likely to be that by autumn so much will have happened at the EU's external borders that the number of migrants coming to Germany will have decreased. At the moment, it doesn't look like it. After a year of special burdens, this year is likely to be another crisis year – even without Ukraine refugees, but solely due to rising numbers of asylum seekers. In October, there will be state elections in Hesse and Bavaria. The issue, which it will be said not to be misused for election campaign purposes, but which occupies a large number of voters, has already been decided. The white elephant in Germany, it's getting bigger and bigger.