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Defence, productivity, trade, research – Europe's global challenges are also its greatest opportunities. The high-level panel discussion at the EESC on European public goods offers a great chance to look at the tasks, funding and practical implementation of a ‘more European EU’. Eulalia Rubio, Marco Buti, Charles Wyplosz, Michael Thöne and others will be discussing these issues with the EESC on 5 June 2025 at 2.30 p.m. and, if you wish, with you too. Webstream and Sli.do participation via this link.
What does resilient water management cost in North Rhine-Westphalia? What would be the cost of inaction in adapting to climate change? How can the financing instruments for water and wastewater management and water protection be strengthened and further developed? These questions will be examined in a study being prepared by FiFo Cologne in collaboration with the Osnabrück-based Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftliche Strukturforschung (GWS) on behalf of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament's Enquete Commission on “Water in Times of the Climate Crisis”. At the kick-off meeting on 12 May 2025 in the state parliament, the project team presented its research plan to the Enquete Commission.
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has published its report on old-age income in Germany (ASID 2023) online. The report, which was prepared for the first time by the survey specialist infas in cooperation with FiFo Köln, mark an important steps forward: Among other things, the survey was gender-balanced throughout for the first time. With the help of a tailor-made tax microsimulation model, FiFo project manager Eva Gerhards also ensured that apples are no longer being compared with oranges: all types of income are now reported as net income. This creates a reliable data basis for further research.
At the request of the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Finance, FiFo Cologne has examined the vertical components of regional financial equalisation in this German Land. In his report, FiFo researcher Eric Schuß focuses in particular on the marked fluctuations in the finances of municipalities and the Land as a result of the multiple crises since 2020, as well as the long-standing issue of low municipal property and business taxes in the Land. The report is now available as FiFo Report No. 36.
Germany's municipalities are deep in the red, but the union is demanding an 8 per cent pay rise for federal and municipal employees. How can this be squared? In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, Michael Thöne looks at the valid arguments on both sides of the bargaining table. The hefty packages of new public debt emerging from the coalition negotiations in Berlin are intended to pay for defence and infrastructure, but they will also – albeit deceptively – ease the fiscal pressure on all public spending. But collective bargaining cannot solve the actual economic problem: the worsening shortage of skilled labour must be addressed with structural solutions – through bureaucratic streamlining, the use of high-tech and through qualified immigration.