Senate discusses energy security and refugees

Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin, and Senator for Health Ulrike Gote after a meeting of the Berlin Senate at the Red City Hall.

The question of the secure of Berlin's supply of gas, oil and electricity in view of the war in Ukraine is one of the central topics at Tuesday's meeting of the Senate.

A joint draft prepared by the Senate Departments for Economics and Transport over the past few days will be discussed. The draft deals with a current analysis of the energy supply as well as with the effects that restrictions, for example on Russian oil and gas supplies, could have on Berlin and how bottlenecks could be prevented. No concrete decisions are to be made on the subject today.

Decision on basic social security for war refugees

The Senate will also discuss the topic of Ukrainian war refugees. Among other things, the impact on Berlin of the decisions taken at the Conference of Minister Presidents together with Chancellor Olaf Scholz last Thursday will be a central subject at the Senate meeting. The federal government and the German states had decided that war refugees would receive basic benefits starting June 1 - just like Hartz IV recipients. This means that, in the future, they will also be looked after by the job centers and no longer by the social welfare offices, which are currently heavily burdened in Berlin. Another important aspect is the assumption of costs by the federal government, which plans to support the states and municipalities with a total of two billion euros in 2022 for their additional expenses for the refugees. Berlin had repeatedly pushed for financial aid.