Where "shabby chic" comes fresh off the shelf, old equipment is often given a second life.

The cumbersome term circular economy has found its way into general vocabulary, and the concept of “repairing instead of discarding” has found expression in the coalition agreement of the Berlin traffic light government.

But not much has been heard of the “right to repair” postulated there since then.

In May, the cabinet is now to decide on a “plan of measures”.

Andreas Mihm

Business correspondent for Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey based in Vienna.

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In Austria, the fight against electronic waste is already further along.

A nationwide repair bonus of up to 200 euros was introduced there this week, and there are up to 30 euros for cost estimates.

The subsidy is available for every defective mobile phone, iron and every washing machine or dishwasher that is trimmed to new.

A maximum of half of the repair costs are subsidized;

the award is given as often and as long as the pot of the first funding period allows until the end of 2023.

All in all, 130 million euros are planned for the project, which is planned to run until 2026.

So that should be enough for a repair subsidy for at least 650,000 devices.

Austria is a pioneer

This will be paid for with loans from the EU Next Generation Fund to deal with the consequences of the pandemic.

The representative of the EU Commission in Austria, Martin Selmayr, spoke of "a proud moment when something succeeds in Europe when we do it together".

The reconstruction fund is intended to make Europe “more resilient, more ecological and more digital” after the Corona crisis.

Austria, Selmayr praised, is the first EU country to introduce a nationwide repair bonus.

Marc Schlößl considers this "a reasonable thing".

The subsidy is a strong incentive to avoid unnecessary technical waste.

His mobile phone shop in Vienna's main train station is one of the more than 1,200 companies that are taking part in the campaign throughout Austria and have registered.

The young salesman knows from colleagues that on the first day, customers would have stood at the counter with the printed-out voucher to have splintered mobile phone displays or other defects repaired.

And once the iPad's display breaks, it quickly costs several hundred euros.

Toasters, televisions or lawnmowers, the list of electrical devices that the bonus can be used to repair is long.

Crucially, they are powered by a power cord, rechargeable battery, battery or solar panel.

So there is no funding for bicycles.

Maintenance or service of e-bikes or the replacement of batteries are also not supported, as the website "REPAIRBONUS.AT" explains.

Participating companies in the vicinity of the apartment can easily be found there.

Extensive list of goods

Everything that is financed is printed tightly on four DIN A4 pages, divided into household, home and office supplies, mobility, consumer electronics, garden, baby and children's articles and pet supplies.

The detailed list ranges from document shredders to irons, ice cube machines, exercise bikes and dental hygiene sets.

It is almost easier to write down what should not be protected from being discarded by state co-financed repairs: passenger cars, hybrid and electric cars, gas stoves, petrol lawnmowers.

Austria's Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) complains that repairs are considered expensive and cumbersome.

So high-quality devices ended up in the garbage, which is "the worst of all solutions".

The Chamber of Commerce calls the bonus a "win-win situation for the environment and consumers".

The fact that the companies also benefit from this is shown by the high level of participation.

The new voucher is easy to create.

Name, address, telephone number and e-mail address are enough to download the "personal repair voucher" with QR code and expiry date in three weeks after the digital comparison with the population register.

No new one can be created until it is redeemed or expired.

After that, as long as the money lasts.

The repair bonus that ended up being paid for by the taxpayer is not an invention of the green minister.

In Vienna, they had issued almost 35,000 funding notifications by the end of 2021 and allegedly saved 850 tons of CO2.

There were also similar projects at regional level in Graz and Lower Austria.

The budgets were often used up quickly, even if the subsidy was only 100 euros.

These concepts are also seen as showcase models in the German debate about grants for repairs, which has been going on in circles for a long time.

So far, however, there has only been a 100-euro bonus in Thuringia.

Equipped with fresh money, he should be revived there in mid-May.

Corresponding announcements came from other federal states, such as Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.

To the disappointment of consumer advocates, it stayed that way.

Consumer Protection Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) has promised to promote the introduction of a "right to repair".

Recently there was talk of a “mix of instruments”.

It is all about the European Ecodesign Directive and the right to buy goods in the German Civil Code.

There was no mention of the repair bonus.