Employment minister suggests infrastructure projects for coal mining regions

Federal employment minister Hubertus Heil has put forward a six-point plan to soften the effect of a coal phase-out in the three lignite (brown coal) mining districts in Germany. There should be a special plan for road, rail, and digital infrastructure projects, and the federal government should negotiate support conditions with the EU since the coal exit is expected to benefit the European climate targets, Heil wrote in the WirtschaftsWoche. Both federal and state governments should pave the way for establishing new research and development facilities as well as public agencies in the lignite mining regions. They should also hold “intensive talks” with German industry representatives to encourage them to open businesses there.

Read a short online version of the article in German here.

See CLEW’s Commission watch and the factsheet Germany’s coal exit commission for background.