German government resolves paralysis over heating policy

A controversial law banning fossil-fuel heating will enter the German parliament this week, the party leaders of Germany’s three-way coalition announced on Tuesday, resolving a months-long feud and blockade of government business.

The legislation is a flagship policy of the Greens, which is supposed to set renewable energy targets for heating systems, effectively banning new gas-based heating systems.

However, concerns from the centre-right FDP and the SPD over the burden on consumers and permissible energy sources ushered in a bitter row that crowded out regular government business for weeks. The FDP eventually blocked a parliamentary vote on the matter, jeopardising the goal of signing the policy into law by the summer.

“We reached an agreement in reliable negotiations throughout the previous days,” Rolf Mützenich, speaker of the SPD in parliament, announced Tuesday afternoon during a joint statement of the three parties.

This would bring the law back in line with the initial timeline and defuse an impending government crisis.

As part of the compromise, key provisions of the legislation “will not become effective until 2028,” according to Christian Dürr, speaker of the FDP.

Until the late afternoon, it was still unclear whether the legislation would enter parliament this week as planned, particularly as several media reported that negotiations among the party leaders in parliament throughout the night had been unsuccessful. The item was also prominently missing from the parliament’s agenda on Tuesday.

Mützenich emphasised the importance of a last-minute intervention by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) on Tuesday afternoon, saying “the presence of members of the government was helpful”.

Habeck initiated the policy and expressed his relief about the agreement, saying it was “an opportunity to pacify the debate” and that it was necessary to “restore the government’s capacity to act.”

Nevertheless, the coalition’s hard-won peace remains fragile as an ongoing disagreement between Lindner and the Greens over the 2024 budget is heating up.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Green ministers continue to block spending cuts to their departments despite an intervention by the chancellor.

(Nick Alipour | EURACTIV.de)

Read more with Euractiv

Poland to challenge Fit for 55 over combustion engine law