Who owns the VW billion?

D The federal states are divided over the distribution of the billion-dollar fine that the Volkswagen Group has paid to Lower Saxony for the diesel scandal. While the finance ministers of the states of Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg endorse a nationwide distribution, Bavaria and Hamburg reject this.

Of course everyone has additional resources available. But the question to whom the money is entitled, is clearly regulated by the Basic Law and the Financial Equalization Act, so a legal issue and not a question of decency, “said Finance Minister Albert Füracker ( Christian Social Union ) on Thursday. Even Hamburg’s Finance Senator Andreas Dressel (SPD) spoke against it, depending on the individual case, the cash flows in the country to change.

The practices of the automaker had caused nationwide damage, said Hesse Finance Minister Thomas Schäfer (CDU). So that not only Lower Saxony as the only country beneficiaries of the VW billion, a compensation for damages should be developed, suggested the current vice-chairman of the Conference of Land ministers.

Should the law be changed?

Previously, the Kiel Minister of Finance Monika Heinold (Greens) had demanded a nationwide distribution of the fine, which had been imposed by the prosecutor Braunschweig.

“Countries and municipalities throughout the republic have to worry even more about clean air because of the exhaust gas scandals: Cases like VW’s are of national importance,” explained Schäfer. He referred to earlier cases, to which he had already made similar demands. “Fines imposed on banks have so far remained with individual countries – even if the banks helped customers across Germany in tax evasion,” said Schäfer. The good cooperation of the authorities across borders should not just end in money.

Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Finance stated that the distribution of fines was irrelevant in terms of financial equalization. “They benefit the land in which they are imposed. If one wanted to change that, the financial constitution would have to be amended accordingly
“, said a spokeswoman for Minister Edith Sitzmann (Greens). The agreement on a reform of the
But federal-state financial relations are not long behind. “There have not been changes in this regard, and they are not expected to happen, given the admittedly not so easy and time-consuming negotiations.”

Brandenburg Finance Minister Christian Görke (The Left) told the “Tagesspiegel”, “it would be fair if the fines flow to all national budgets”. The diesel scandal affects not only the state of Lower Saxony, but the entire population. “With the approximately 30 million euros, which would be arithmetically attributed to Brandenburg, here could be set a noticeable environmental impulse.” Therefore, it would be correct now to think about a change in the legal basis to compensate all affected countries by the fines.