The wrangling over the government’s heating law continues on several levels. On Tuesday evening, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) was scheduled to meet with expert politicians of the traffic light parties. In parallel, the deputy parliamentary party leaders of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP also want to discuss possible lines of compromise this week.
“Minister Habeck has invited the rapporteurs of the three Ampel parliamentary groups for this evening to answer the 77 questions posed by the FDP rapporteurs and, if necessary, further follow-up questions,” said ministry spokeswoman Beate Baron.
The meeting, at which the Ministry of Construction is also represented, is to take place mainly digitally, it was also said from government circles. Accordingly, the focus will be on the FDP’s questions. “So it is not a round of negotiations, and consequently there will be no results today,” the circles added. In the coming days, the Ministry of Economics is planning further talks with associations to “improve the law”.
More on the level of the political decision-makers in the traffic light parliamentary groups are the parallel negotiations of the deputy parliamentary group leaders, which began last week. They are to be continued in the coming days.
On Friday, Habeck had outlined possible lines of compromise on the draft bill. In its current version, the draft stipulates that, as a rule, new heating systems may only be installed from 2024 onwards if they can be powered by at least 65 per cent renewable energy. Habeck now suggested possibly limiting this to new buildings at first and not putting it into effect for existing buildings until later. In addition, he showed himself willing to make the regulations more flexible.
The SPD in particular, however, attaches importance to the fact that the decision on the government’s draft for the new Building Energy Act (GEG) now falls in parliament and is no longer a matter for the ministries. Their parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich had pointed out on Friday that “compromises and solution corridors have already been identified” in the exchange between the parliamentary groups. “I can’t advise anyone to already spread these out in public without necessity,” he had said with regard to Habeck’s proposals.
The bill by Habeck and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD), which was passed by the cabinet, has met with resistance, especially from the FDP. Last week, the FDP blocked the start of consultations in the Bundestag.
“The law must not overburden people economically and financially. Cosmetic changes are not enough,” FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai told the “Rheinische Post” again. With regard to the meeting on Tuesday evening, Djir-Sarai spoke of a “heating summit”, at which the course for changes to the bill should definitely be set. FDP parliamentary group vice-president Lukas Köhler, speaking on ZDF, again advocated a stronger role for emissions trading. This was “the way of the FDP”.
Green caucus leader Katharina Dröge warned the FDP against continuing to block the bill, which aims to reduce CO2 emissions in the building sector. “The FDP parliamentary group should now clear the way so that we can finally enter into a proper parliamentary procedure on the law,” Dröge told the Funke Mediengruppe. For this to happen, “all sides must be pragmatic and willing to compromise”. For the Greens, social equalisation, especially for households with small and medium incomes, is central.
SPD Secretary-General Kevin Kühnert also urged an agreement in the “traffic light”. “It is important that we get through the parliamentary procedure before the parliamentary summer break,” he said on ZDF. Therefore, “the knot has to be cut this week”, he urged for haste.
AFP and Blackout News
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