News
28.09.2024 - Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has led to a reassessment of security policy in Germany. In 2022, at the 'turn of an era', a special fund of 100 billion euros was created to close the defence gaps of the past. However, this money will soon be expended. At the 19th Petersberg Dialogue on Security, jointly organised by the German Armed Forces Association, the German Society for Security Policy and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Michael Thöne discusses the fiscal priorities of the ‘Zeitenwende’ and the question of how Germany can raise up to 100 billion euros each year for defence from 2027 onwards.
25.09.2024 - In 2030, one in seven municipal positions in North Rhine-Westphalia will remain vacant. With this edition of the NRW.BANK.Fokus Kommunen survey, FiFo is examining the financial situation, the investment backlog and climate protection in North Rhine-Westphalia's municipalities, as well as the growing personnel gap in cities, towns and districts. Due to demographic change, the gap cannot be closed by personnel policy alone. The study therefore also investigates how administrative simplification and other measures can reduce the need for personnel.
11.09.2024 - Germany and Europe must become more productive and competitive again. The necessary transformation can only succeed if it is designed with foresight and actively promotes climate neutrality and ecological sustainability. In a joint project with FiFo on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) and the Öko-Institut are investigating the extent to which regional structural policy in Germany is meeting these demands. The focus is on the German Integrated Funding System (GFS) with its 22 programmes. In a short policy paper and a concept paper, the three postulates of ecological sustainability, foresight and transformative ambition are presented with regard to their significance and possible operationalisation for regional policy.
23.08.2024 - Much of the Quality of Public Finances depends on how efficiently and for what purpose public funds are spent. As investments in the future always struggle to compete in the political arena, an indicator of which spending not only benefits the immediate present can help to improve this quality. Twenty years ago, FiFo developed the ‘WNA budget’ exactly for this purpose. Now, in a modernised, contemporary form, Albrecht Bohne, Friedrich Heinemann, Thomas Niebel and WNA-inventor Michael Thöne present the ‘future ratio’ as a new quality compass for the German federal budget in Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik. Cleverly applied, the future ratio can also help to monitor and control a reformed debt brake.
03.07.2024 - Climate protection and conventional municipal fiscal equalisation do not match. This somewhat sobering finding from the study conducted by FiFo Köln together with Thomas Döring (sofia Darmstadt) for the Land North Rhine-Westphalia prompts us to take an innovative approach. With the climate impact approach, we present a concept - not yet ready-to-use - for combining targeted municipal climate protection, modern fiscal performance orientation and the reduction of administrative burdens. In its second focus, the study analyses the advantages and disadvantages of multi-year tax capacity measurement in fiscal equalisation. The German Report is published today as FiFo Report No. 34.