Energy crisis, refugee accommodation, 49-euro ticket. Municipalities face major challenges. NRW Prime Minister Wüst has invited representatives of the top municipal meetings to a meeting in the State Chancellery. The first demands are on the table.
Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) - Against the background of the Ukraine war and the energy crisis, Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) is advising the situation in the cities and municipalities with representatives of the central municipal associations this Tuesday. At the meeting to which he invited the decisions of the Prime Ministers' Conference from the beginning of November will also be discussed, the State Chancellery announced.
The North Rhine-Westphalia Association of Cities is demanding more help from the NRW state government in accommodating refugees. The municipal association believes that at least 70,000 places in the state institutions are necessary. That would mean more than doubling the current capacity. According to the municipal association, the capacities in the municipal accommodation are already largely exhausted.
According to Family and Integration Minister Josefine Paul (Greens), the state is looking for more properties that could be used in the short term, just like the municipalities. "This also includes the open-mindedness on the part of the municipality to accept the country's new emergency accommodation in its own urban area," Paul told the "Rheinische Post" (Tuesday). She hopes that the municipalities will name possible properties for the country.
At the meeting of the state government with representatives of the NRW Association of Towns and Municipalities, the Association of NRW Towns and NRW and the NRW District Association, the focus should not only be on accommodation for refugees, but also on local public transport and relief in the energy crisis. The state government has launched a multi-billion dollar rescue package to secure the liquidity of the municipal utility.
