After the flood disaster in the west, the federal government wants to do at least three things at the same time: The victims should immediately receive financial help so that they can regain their ability to act after the loss of their belongings, they should also receive state reconstruction aid in the event that their damage is not insured can take advantage of.

Ultimately, the federal government wants to develop general measures to reduce the consequences of natural disasters caused by climate change and to cope with them in a more coordinated manner.

All of these aspects were discussed in the Federal Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The resolutions for this provide for emergency aid amounting to 400 million euros and general development aid amounting to up to six billion euros, half of which is to be borne by the federal states.

Johannes Leithäuser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The federal government also exempts the states and municipalities from the costs of federal personnel who are currently helping with flood operations.

Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) stated that 8,500 people were currently deployed by the technical relief organization, the federal police and the armed forces.

In addition, according to the Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), the federal government alone will bear the costs of rebuilding the federal infrastructure, i.e. for federal highways and motorways as well as for railways;

the federal states should not have to participate.

Avoid long approval procedures

The ministers said on Wednesday that the federal aid package was based on the flood aid that was provided after the floods in summer 2016, both in terms of amount and structure. At that time, especially in southern Germany, major damage had occurred after thunderstorms and heavy rainfall; four people lost their lives in the process. According to the Federal Minister of Finance, reconstruction should also be able to be tackled quickly by using reliefs and exceptions in planning law that dispense with long approval procedures.

Firstly, Scholz and Seehofer justified anew that politicians themselves undertook trips to the disaster areas in order to assess the extent of the damage.

Second, they again dismissed allegations that the federal government had issued too late and inadequate warnings of the impending catastrophe.

Seehofer said the German Weather Service had forwarded its severe weather warning to more than 150 locations in the federal states in good time.

There it had to be decided to what extent the population should be informed.

Seehofer said that the division of labor in disaster control was "neatly regulated" in the Basic Law.

The day before, however, he had agreed with the interior ministers of the federal states that the alarm issues would be evaluated “in due course”;

you have to be “open to improvements”.

Alert planned by SMS

The Federal Minister of the Interior also launched the reform of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, which he presented in March. Although the federal government is only responsible for civil protection in the event of a defense, the federal office should in future help the federal states to set up alarm systems. In addition to the federal grants that have already been decided on to rebuild a comprehensive siren network, it has been checked since March whether it would be possible and sensible to warn the population in threatened regions via SMS on mobile phones in the future. Seehofer said that a positive result of this test can be expected; the result can be expected before the general election. Regarding future siren warnings, the minister said consideration would be given to introducing special warning tones for different disaster situations,just as it used to be the case.

According to the two ministers, the long-term consequences of the current disaster could include a permanent flood compensation fund; but this must be discussed between the federal and state governments. Seehofer said his ministry had been working on a spatial planning plan for flood protection in recent years, which was ready for a decision, but against which there were many objections. Above all, the exceptions contained therein have been criticized.

Scholz said that the federal government has an obligation to compensate for the flood damage suffered by the flood victims, because there should be “no individualisation of risks” caused by society as a whole due to the climate-damaging lifestyle. Seehofer said: "People pay taxes for getting help in this extraordinary situation." Scholz said that there should not be double compensation, for example if insurance companies also provided compensation, but cynicism and heartlessness are currently out of place.