The federal government has provided 40 billion euros so that structural change can take place in the regions affected by the coal phase-out.

This mammoth project is now picking up speed - albeit slowly.

The federal states have so far planned around 3 billion euros in 175 projects, according to an interim report that the executive minister of economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) presented to the cabinet on Wednesday.

Julia Löhr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Seven projects with a total financial volume of 80.5 million euros have already started.

These are all located in Saxony, in the local part of the Lusatian and Central German districts.

In July 2020, the Bundestag and Bundesrat decided that Germany should no longer generate electricity other than coal by 2038.

According to the will of the SPD, Greens and FDP, this date should be brought forward significantly with a view to the climate goals.

"Ideally" by 2030, the possible traffic light coalition wants to get out of coal.

Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia are particularly affected.

The new North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) said in his government statement in the state parliament on Wednesday that his state was ready to withdraw in 2030.

Financial and structural aid amount to 40 billion euros

The help is divided into two parts.

The federal states' financial aid - a total of 14 billion euros - can be spent by the federal states on their own for what they consider to be meaningful projects.

The structural aid - 26 billion euros - is the responsibility of the federal government.

They are intended, for example, for the settlement of authorities and the expansion of traffic routes.

According to the interim report, almost 11 billion euros of these funds had been earmarked for the end of August, largely under the responsibility of the Ministry of Economics and Research.

By the end of 2028, 5,000 new jobs are to be created in government agencies and other federal institutions in the coal regions.

According to Altmaier's interim report, 2140 positions are filled.

About half of it is in the Brandenburg part of the Lausitz district.

But new jobs in the public service are also being created in other regions.

It was only on Monday that the Federal Ministry of Economics announced that the Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (BAFA), headquartered in Eschborn, is getting two new branches in the Central German district, in Borna (Saxony) and in Merseburg (Saxony-Anhalt).

The number of employees has fallen to less than a seventh in 30 years

There are currently just under 20,000 people working in lignite mining in Germany. At the end of the 1980s there were more than 150,000. In East Germany in particular, there are great concerns that there will not be enough replacements for the comparatively well-paid jobs in coal. So far, new settlements have mainly been about authorities and research institutes. Classic industrial jobs, on the other hand, have so far been rare.

Deutsche Bahn is now cooperating with the energy company Leag.

In the coming year, she wants to offer 100 coal employees a job in the new railway maintenance facility in Cottbus.

A total of 1200 jobs are to be created in the plant in the coming years.

The expansion of the transport infrastructure is developing more slowly.

For the expansion of the rail connection from Berlin to Görlitz and on to Wroclaw, the interim report only states that clarification of the task has not yet started.