Federal government wants to provide better support for lignite mining states

The federal government and the lignite mining states want to provide better support for the coal regions.

To this end, the federal-state coordination committee for structural change in the lignite mining states has agreed a package that is intended to promote investment, among other things, as announced by the Federal Ministry of Economics on Monday. The use of the funds is to be made more flexible both in the coal regions in the west in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the east in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg.

Finally, direct investments could go to local companies, creating and securing jobs, said Sven Giegold, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The package is intended to ensure that regional value creation is strengthened, companies remain in the region and can make themselves future-proof. “By making the funding periods more flexible, we are preventing funding from expiring.”

According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the package is intended to trigger investment in innovative technologies in the lignite regions, which would not happen without the package. These additional investments would contribute to the development of a strong, resilient and sustainable regional economy and offer attractive jobs.

(Report by Tom Käckenhoff; Edited by Hans Busemann; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)).