The North Rhine-Westphalian state government wants to invest more than 14 billion euros to counteract the consequences of the energy crisis for the population and the economy. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) announced on Friday in the NRW state parliament that the state would provide a total of 14.4 billion euros to deal with the crisis. For financing, the black-green state government will go “to the pain limit” and, among other things, will make full use of the general budget reserve.
According to Wüst, the three federal relief packages alone will burden the NRW budget with 3.5 billion euros from 2023. In addition, there is the guarantee rescue package for municipal utilities. This means that the NRW-Bank can grant liquidity loans of up to a total of five billion euros to the municipalities involved in municipal utilities.
Wüst announced that he would invite to a municipal summit in Düsseldorf in the middle of this month. The country will stand by the municipalities in the crisis.
With the billions provided, the country will stand together against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attacks on freedom and democracy in the West, said Wüst.(dpa)