updates
Reading was scheduled this week
FDP slows down timetable for the heating law
05/23/2023 12:37 p.m
Contrary to the demands of the Greens and SPD, the heating law will not be read in the Bundestag this week. The FDP can prevail – to the chagrin of the pissed off Greens. This shakes the previous schedule for the heating replacement. The Union wants to debate the topic in a current hour.
The timetable for the passage of the controversial heating law in the Bundestag is becoming more and more shaky. The traffic light groups agreed not to discuss the draft in the first reading in Parliament this week. “With good will, we can still pass the law by the summer,” said the parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast. The coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP had actually already agreed on this.
The FDP had recently questioned the date and is pushing for a complete revision. Green parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann was angry about the behavior of the liberal coalition partner. She accused the FDP of “refusal to work”. “I expect the FDP to end their blockade now.” According to Haßelmann, appointments have already been made for hearing experts and associations as part of the legislative process.
“The unreliability at this point is astonishing,” she criticized the FDP. The heating law must now be in the Bundestag in the coming week. The first reading of the draft passed by the cabinet is a kind of starting signal for the parliamentary consultation process, in which the government proposal can still be changed according to the opinion of the members of parliament.
The parliamentary summer recess begins on July 7th, until then there are only three more weeks of sessions. “Now it’s Parliament’s turn,” said Mast. There are already preparatory talks in the coalition this week. People rightly demanded clarity about how to proceed with the heating. “The SPD parliamentary group only agrees to the law if heating remains affordable,” emphasized Mast.
Irrespective of the dispute between the coalition factions, the heating bill will still occupy parliament this week. As the parliamentary administration announced on Tuesday, the Union parliamentary group requested a current hour on the “Federal government’s heating plans”. The Union also rejects the law and instead calls for a market-based solution: the renewable energies that have proven to be the most attractive on the market should prevail in building heating via a reliably rising CO2 price.
According to the draft already approved by the Federal Cabinet, from 2024 onwards every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent green energy. This should apply to all owners up to the age of 80. Existing oil and gas heating systems can continue to be operated, and broken ones can be repaired. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the changeover is to be cushioned socially by funding – the details are, however, controversial. The law is considered an important component of the plan to make Germany climate-neutral by 2045.