Ahead of meeting with Merkel: Saxony state premier expects timetable for mining region support

Coal state Saxony’s premier, Michael Kretschmer (CDU), expects decisions on a timetable for mining region support from today’s (31 January) meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, several of her cabinet members and the heads of the coal exit commission, he told Deutschlandfunk (Dlf) in a radio interview. Affected state premiers had proposed to agree on key infrastructure projects in a programme of measures by the end of April, he said. In a message on Twitter, Kretschmer said: “We must act quickly regarding structural economic change. For this we need reliable commitments for long-term financial support for the coal regions.” In the Dlf interview, Kretschmer added that the deal agreed by Germany’s coal exit commission to end coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest should be implemented now. “I don’t want to re-open the package. It is important that everyone abides by it,” he said, commenting on the criticism of the proposed exit date by environmental NGOs. Germany’s government has signalled a swift process to assess the proposal agreed by the country’s coal exit commission in order to set the law-making process in motion.