The city council of Cologne is discussing the introduction of a local tax on disposable packaging for food and beverages intended for immediate consumption, based on the Tübingen model. The aim is to make reusable packaging more attractive and reduce litter on Cologne's streets. In an interview with WDR television, Michael Thöne predicts that such a levy would have a positive, albeit moderate, incentive effect. What is missing on TV: The levy should first and foremost be seen as a small tax, which in Cologne could generate an estimated 10 million Euros per year, but would also result in a sizeable administrative burden for the catering industry and the city.

The financial distress of German municipalities is closely linked to the upcoming federal elections. But it is not primarily a question of money. Rather, the central level should more often take responsibility for its own tasks instead of passing them on to the municipalities. In conversation with WDR, Michael Thöne stresses the need for structural reforms of social services with a view to municipalities. Municipalities must be able to focus more on their often neglected obligations in providing core local services. And the governance of an effective and efficient social policy cannot be reduced to the distant delegation of tasks without functioning connectivity. Modernising government also requires a continued development of the federal division of public tasks.

Monheim am Rhein has become famous and (temporarily) rich through a risky strategy. As an aggressive trade tax haven, the city has used its ideal location in the Düsseldorf and Cologne suburbia to generate far above-average revenues for many years. These were used to finance expenditures that went even farer beyond the normal municipal level. Accordingly, the city is now also record-breakingly in debt. Now in the crisis, the questionable municipal investment plans – after all, who still builds shopping centres these days? – should be scrapped, recommends Michael Thöne in DIE ZEIT (paywall).

A sovereign and free, competitive and sustainable Europe requires a fundamental modernisation of the EU. The EU budget and the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the years 2028 to 2034 are central to this. At the preparatory workshop of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets on 7 November 2024, Michael Thöne outlines in his contribution which reforms on the expenditure side can strengthen the EU's original European tasks, where the revenues for this should come from and how the MFF needs to be structurally modernised in this process.

Aligning public budgets more closely with policy objectives, impacts and sustainability has long been a central research area at FiFo. With the start of the 'inception phase’ on 25 October 2024, the Institute embarks on a new project to support the Ministry of Finance of Baden-Württemberg in developing green budgeting practices. The project is part of an EU-wide process organised by the European Commission (DG Reform) and managed by Expertise France.

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