Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger takes over as Chairman of the German Conference of Economics Ministers

Source: Energy & Management Powernews , 02 January 2023

Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) will take over the chairmanship of the German Conference of Ministers of Economic Affairs (WMK) for two years on January 1, 2023.

The Conference of Ministers is regarded as an important instrument of economic policy cooperation among the states. In addition to the mutual exchange of information and experience, it serves the purpose of joint political action in their own area or vis-à-vis the federal government in resolutions. The conference is attended by the Ministers and Senators of Economic Affairs of all 16 states and the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection as a guest.

As announced by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the next regular conference of the body Conference of Ministers of Economic Affairs will be held on June 21 and 22, 2023 at Schloss Hohenkammer in the Upper Bavarian district of Freising. The main topic will be "Strengthening the economic resilience and crisis resistance of the German economy - resilience". The background to this is the experience gained in connection with the Corona pandemic and the Ukraine war, and above all the realization from this that Germany must become more independent of individual supplier countries and of global disruptions in supply chains.

Aiwanger went on to explain that the expansion of renewable energies, including hydrogen, would be a WMK focus in the next two years. In addition, the shortage of skilled workers and labor. In addition, several special economic minister conferences on current topics will probably take place virtually.

Criticism of the hydrogen strategy of the federal government

Just a few days ago, Aiwanger had drawn attention to himself with criticism of the hydrogen strategy of the federal government. Countries, industry and investors would not be sufficiently merged here. Germany runs away with the topic besides the time, explained the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs. In an interview with the German Press Agency, he announced that the topic would be placed at the top of the agenda of the WMK. At the same time he demanded to grasp the potentials of the individual countries and their respective interests with the hydrogen.

From the view of Aiwanger the problem shows up in the current phase above all with the development of the distribution networks. Through the federal government's planned establishment of a new state hydrogen network company, the expansion would be unnecessarily delayed, since the operators of the gas networks would already see much more clearly what is needed.

For the Free State, the goal should be: Connection to hydrogen pipelines for the years "2025 following". Here for example the announcement of the transmission system operators Gascade, Ontras and Terranets BW for the building of a pipeline from the Baltic Sea to Thuringia makes hope for him up to the year 2025 that then also Bavaria is fast connected. In this context, he could imagine building a pipeline from Bavaria to Thuringia.

Author: Günter Drewnitzky