The use of budget funds for civil sea rescue is causing a dispute between Germany and Italy. The Chancellor recently distanced himself from state funding. Objection now comes from the Foreign Office.
The Foreign Office has denied a report that no more payments from the federal budget to civilian sea rescuers are planned next year. “The media reports are incorrect,” said a ministry spokesman on Saturday. The Foreign Office is implementing the Bundestag’s mandate to promote civil sea rescue with projects on land and at sea.
The “Bild” newspaper had reported that, unlike the budget for 2023, there was no longer any mention of such financial support in the Federal Foreign Office’s partial budget for 2024. This was a technical oversight, explained the ministry spokesman. That is why “in the current draft of the 2024 budget, the corresponding budget resources were not initially explicitly estimated.” It has been planned for several weeks to correct this as part of the further budget process.
Foreign Office: “We will implement this”
Funding for sea rescue with so-called commitment authorizations from the Bundestag is also planned for the years 2024 to 2026. “We will implement these,” emphasized the Foreign Office spokesman.
The Bundestag’s Budget Committee decided last November that two million euros per year should flow from the Federal Foreign Office’s funds for civil sea rescue from 2023. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) distanced himself from this on Friday evening: The funds for the sea rescuers were approved by the Bundestag and not by the federal government, he said: “I did not submit the application and neither did the government I represent.”
When asked what his personal opinion was on the financing of sea rescue organizations, Scholz repeated: “That is the opinion I have that I did not submit the application. And I think that is unmistakable.”
The financial support of private sea rescuers had recently caused considerable disputes between Germany and Italy. Italy’s ultra-right head of government Giorgia Meloni recently complained about German payments to sea rescue workers in a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and said at the end of September that countries under whose flag such ships were traveling should then also take in the rescued migrants.
Sea rescue “humanitarian and legal duty”
Green party leader Britta Haßelmann called sea rescue in the Mediterranean “a humanitarian and legal duty” in the newspapers of the Funke media group. It is good that Parliament has decided on support of two million euros per year until 2026, “together as a traffic light and with the Union and the Left,” she emphasized.
Just last weekend, the Foreign Office rejected criticism from US billionaire Elon Musk about the financing of sea rescue. Musk shared a message from a user account attacking the Traffic Light Coalition’s support of civilian sea rescuers in the Mediterranean and asked whether the German public was aware of it. The Foreign Office replied: “Yes. And that’s called saving lives.”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
