Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The state and municipalities want to start a new attempt at the end of next week in order to agree on the distribution of the costs for the approximately 100,000 Ukrainian war refugees. The Joint Finance Commission will meet again on Friday in a week (July 15), the Ministry of Finance and the municipal associations in Stuttgart said on Thursday. There is reportedly some rapprochement after getting stuck and breaking up with no result two weeks ago. It’s about a cost of more than half a billion euros.
The financial talks are overshadowed by the Ukraine war and the corona pandemic. The country fears that the economy and tax revenues will collapse this year and therefore intends to spend relatively little more. City, community and district councils recently insisted on full cost absorption by the state.
The background is that the first refugees will receive Hartz IV benefits from June 1st and will no longer be classified as asylum seekers. The associations had calculated that this system change would result in additional financial requirements of 720 million euros for cities and municipalities this year. The country estimates this sum to be somewhat lower.
