A brake on gas and electricity prices, a cheap, Germany-wide ticket for local public transport and support for the municipalities in accommodating the many newly arrived refugees: the federal and state governments agreed on these points on Wednesday in the long-awaited Prime Ministers' Conference (MPK). agreed.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The cap on gas prices should be twelve cents per kilowatt hour, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Wednesday after the consultations, which were surprisingly short given the abundance of controversial issues.

As a comparison price, the resolution specifies a current average price for new gas contracts of around 21 cents.

In addition, the advance payment for December is carried over.

The electricity price is covered for consumers at 40 cents and for industrial companies at 13 cents per kilowatt hour.

The federal government is providing 12 billion euros for hardship cases, especially for hospitals and care facilities.

The federal government wants to make another 1 billion euros available for small and medium-sized companies.

There should also be compensation for consumers who do not use gas heating but oil heating, for example, via the hardship regulation.

However, regulations still have to be made for this.

This is now being implemented together with other regulations, such as skimming off so-called random profits from electricity producers.

Scholz initially gave no dates for implementation.

According to North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU), the federal states unanimously called for the gas price brake to come earlier than previously planned, otherwise there would be a gap in January where it does not yet apply.

The decision paper of the federal-state summit states that the gas price brake will be "introduced on March 1, 2023" as proposed by the gas price commission.

However, “retroactive effect as of February 1, 2023” is being sought.

So far there is no blueprint for the gas price brake that has been decided, said Wüst, who is co-chairman of the MPK.

The financial dimension of this measure is also enormous.

Despite the billions in relief, there would still be burdens for people, emphasized Wüst.

But it is important that it is done fairly.

The planned “Deutschlandticket” will be a significant relief for millions of commuters. The federal and state governments have agreed on this after months of tough fighting about the future financing of public transport.

It should cost 49 euros and be available as a digital monthly ticket, which can be canceled at any time.

The aim is to introduce the new Germany-wide tariff "at the turn of the year", as Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) emphasized.

There are doubts as to whether this will actually succeed due to complex technical issues.

In any case, this should happen “as soon as possible.

Wissing spoke of the largest “local public transport tariff reform in Germany”, which is also unique in Europe.

“Never before has it been so easy for people in our country to use buses and trains.

The federal government is making 1.5 billion euros available for this and is also increasing the "regionalization funds" through which the federal government is involved in financing local public transport.

This year he will pay an additional one billion euros, in this and the coming years the federal government will increase the grants by 3 percent and not only by 1.8 percent as previously agreed.

This is done primarily to compensate for the significantly increased energy costs.

There is also relief for municipalities in caring for the growing number of refugees.

The federal government is paying the federal states even more money for the costs of refugee care - a total of an additional 4.25 billion euros for the years 2022 and 2023. In concrete terms, this means that the federal government is providing an additional 1.5 billion for the Ukrainian refugees this year and in 2023 euros available.

"For the costs associated with those who come to Germany from other countries, the federal government will support the federal states with a general refugee-related lump sum of 1.25 billion euros annually from 2023," it says.

The federal and state governments will talk about further development in Easter 2023.