By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will spend 90% of the 28 billion euros ($34 billion) it expects from the European Union’s 750 billion euro recovery fund on climate protection and digitalization, by far exceeding EU requirements, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz gestures as he holds a news conference in Berlin, Germany, March 24, 2021. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/Pool
“Today is a good day for Europe . Now, we can act united for a strong Europe which stands in solidarity and is fit for the future,” Scholz said as both Germany and France presented their plans for the money.
BBC News
By Richard Anderson
image captionThere is a strong anti-coal movement in Germany
Germany is an enlightened leader in the global battle to reduce CO2 emissions, a pioneer in renewable energy and community power projects and a champion of energy efficiency.
Or so the common narrative goes.
But try telling that to Monika Schulz-Hopfner. She and her husband, along with 250 other residents of Atterwasch, a quiet village near the Polish border, face eviction from their home of 30 years to make way for the Janschwalde-Nord coal mine.
And not just any old coal, but lignite, the dirtiest form of this ancient fossil fuel that is mined in vast opencast pits.
Mini-jobbers hurting in the pandemic
Low wages, non-existent social benefits - Germany s mini-jobbers are losing out in corona. Time to cancel the whole concept?
Artikel anhören Foto: imagoOut in the fresh air, but precariously employed? An employee of a delivery service in Stuttgart.
Berlin - Critics call mini-jobs - in which workers can earn up to €450 per month with no tax or insurance deductions (and no automatic health insurance) - a poverty trap. Advocates see them as a stepping stone to the primary labour market.
Sometimes they re referred to as €450 jobs, but this is misleading as most mini-jobbers earn far less. Only a third were paid an average of €400 to €450 last year. For about half, it was €300 or less.
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I know a 22-year-old who has been earning money as an entrepreneur since he was 15. Rather than going to university, he founded a successful company. Now, he wants to emigrate. “In Germany, you are more likely to be envied than appreciated,” he explained to me. Some of his friends have already emigrated to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and he is now weighing up whether to join them in Dubai or head for Singapore instead.
Another friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and has founded eight companies, creating lots of jobs in the process. “If a leftist government is elected on Sept. 26, I will definitely emigrate,” he told me. Like many, he is afraid that the general election in September could result in a majority for Germany’s three major left-wing parties: the Greens, the SPD, and Die Linke. According to the latest polls, these three parties could well gain enough votes to form a government.