Habeck wants to answer “77 questions and other inquiries” from the FDP
Traffic light parties looking for compromise
According to the federal government, around four million oil and gas heating systems in residential buildings in Germany will reach the age of the statutory replacement obligation of 30 years in the coming year alone. The CDU sees this as a signal to the Economics Minister.
In order to clarify the FDP’s questions about the planned heating law, Economics Minister Robert Habeck invited the coalition partners to a virtual discussion. However, this should not be a round of negotiations – instead, at least 77 technical questions would be clarified.
BEconomics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) will discuss this Tuesday evening with the responsible politicians from the traffic light groups Heating Act. “Minister Habeck has invited the reporters from the three traffic light factions tonight to answer the 77 questions asked by the FDP reporters and any other questions that may arise,” said ministry spokeswoman Beate Baron. She otherwise referred to the ongoing parliamentary process on the law.
In the rapporteur’s discussion with Habeck, most of the participants would tune in virtually, government circles said. The Federal Building Ministry, which had presented the draft for the new Building Energy Act (GEG) together with the Economics Department, was also represented.
In essence, it is therefore about answering the questions of the FDP. “So this is not a round of negotiations, and consequently there will be no results today, but the focus is on answering technical questions,” government circles said.
In the next few days, there should be further talks on the law, including with representatives of associations. “The aim, as announced by Minister Habeck, is to make the law better and to explore where improvements make sense and are feasible,” it said. The various talks this week should show a way to do this.
Habeck is flexible when it comes to implementation
Habeck already had on Friday possible compromise lines to the bill shown. This provides that, as a rule, new heating systems may only be installed from 2024 if they can be operated with at least 65 percent renewable energies. Habeck now suggested that this might initially be limited to new buildings and only come into force later for existing buildings. He was also willing to make the regulations more flexible.
From government circles it was now said that the economics department would “feed Habeck’s proposals into the talks between the parliamentary groups”. These are currently taking place at the level of the deputy parliamentary group chairmen of the SPD, Greens and FDP. There was a first meeting on this last week. Another meeting is expected this week.
The proposal by Habeck and Bauminister’s Klara Geywitz (SPD) met with resistance, especially from the FDP. This is why they blocked the start of the deliberations in the Bundestag last week.