The federal and state governments want to invest in strengthening civil protection.

The interior ministers and senators of the federal states, who met from Wednesday to Friday for their semi-annual conference in Würzburg, are demanding ten billion euros from the federal government within the next ten years for a "civil protection strengthening pact".

Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior from the CSU, who chaired the conference, described civil protection and disaster control as one of the “fundamental promises of protection made by the state to its citizens”.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius, who coordinates the SPD-led countries, said: "We have to prepare ourselves to deal with the consequences of military conflicts, extreme weather events or cyber attacks on critical infrastructure." With the Russian attack on Ukraine, a threat had returned , "we must pay back the peace dividend".

The turning point not only includes strengthening Germany's internal defense capabilities, but also expanding civil defense - "regardless of when we have to expect a real threat," said Pistorius.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) was only a guest at the conference of the federal states, but she had to respond to the financial wishes of the federal states.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior has "connected to the content of the decision," said Faeser, but did not commit itself.

The sum itself must be decided by the Bundestag as the budgetary sovereign.

The federal government will “continue to invest massively” in civil protection, she promised and announced that it would continue the siren support program.

"But it is also clear that the federal states are also required to invest massively in this area of ​​classic federal state responsibilities."

On Thursday, the federal and state governments decided on the joint competence center in the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), which Faeser described as a "milestone".

In the competence center, representatives of the federal, state, local authorities and aid organizations should sit at one table so that everything comes together in the event of a disaster.

However, Herrmann emphasized that the responsibility of the federal states remains unaffected.

The management of the respective situation remains in the hands of the federal states, the BBK only takes over the coordination.

"Maximum pressure to investigate" in the event of abuse

Another focus of the conference of interior ministers, at which, according to Herrmann, all decisions were unanimous, was the fight against child abuse.

In addition to “maximum investigative pressure”, Faeser also called for the necessary investigative instruments.

She renewed her demand for the storage of IP addresses.

This is "absolutely necessary to identify perpetrators, uncover networks and, in the worst cases, stop ongoing acts of abuse".

The interior ministers of the federal states have decided to examine storage periods for IP addresses.

However, the FDP, coalition partner in the federal government, has already made it clear that it will not go down this path, it just wants the data to be "frozen".

Peter Beuth, Hesse's Minister of the Interior and coordinator of the Union-led countries, pointed out that investigations came to nothing because IP addresses have already been deleted and the perpetrators can no longer be found.

In the past year alone, 2,100 investigations had to be discontinued.