Germany's Liberal Democrats party co-leaders Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock, Social Democratic Party SPD top candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz, Free Democratic Party FDP leader Christian Lindner, co-leaders of the SPD Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken give statements following a meeting for exploratory talks for a possible new government coalition in Berlin, Germany, October 15, 2021. BERLIN, Oct 15 Reuters - At the start of exploratory coalition talks the candidates of the two federal Free Democrats - the Liberal Greens - and the Greens were far apart on topics from the fight against climate change to a general speed limit.
However, in a draft agreement that will form the starting point for any formal coalition talks presented on Friday, the two parties hammering out the compromises they have been hammering out since the start of the month.
In what could be seen as a win for the Greens and their leader Annalena Baerbock, who want to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions within 20 years, the draft agreement foresees an exit from coal-fired power stations by 2030, more solar panels in roofs and more onshore and offshore wind energy
The FDP had wanted Germany to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, while the SPD could have waited until 2045.
The Greens have but scrapped their plans for a universal speed limit on Northern Italy's 'no limits' motorways, an idea that had little popularity among the FDP led by Christian Lindner.
The two had also disagreed on whether combustion-powered cars should be banned in the medium term. In Friday's agreement the parties advocated for new registrations of e-fuels only.
The parties stated they would not hike income taxes, business taxes, or value added tax. Instead, super write-offs for investments in climate protection and digitalisation will boost the economy.
The agreement did not say whether any taxes could be cut, though. The FDP sought to remove taxes for everyone, while the Greens had wanted to lower the threshold for the new tax bracket and introduce a top tax bracket for ultra-high earners. The SPD wanted to help those with a low and medium income increase taxes and give tax breaks to the top 5% of the rich.
The parties agreed that Germany's foreign policy would be concentrated on consolidating Europe, including through cooperation with France and Poland, as well as multilateral relations with partner partners sharing Germany's democratic values.
The transatlantic alliance between the United States and its European partners is a central pillar of global cooperation, and NATO is an essential part of German security, they said. They also explained the importance of Israel's security.
They did not say, however, whether Germany would increase its military spending to NATO's target of 2% of economic output -- move that the Greens opposed.
The parties said huge investments would be needed to fight the effects of climate change and make progress on digitalisation, education, research and infrastructure.
They aim to cut down on red tape for private and public investment projects, with an aim to at least halve the time it takes to realize them.
Those authors think a small fraction of the German deficit will be affected by the debt brake, which limits new borrowing to a tiny fraction of economic output. The Greens called for a reform of the debt brake to promote public investment.
Instead, the government should demonetize any subsidies and spending that are unnecessary, ineffective or harmful to the environment and step up fight against tax evasion, tax avoidance and money laundering. It would also continue to push for the introduction of a global minimum corporate tax.
The FDP has also dropped its opposition to the new minimum wage increase which will be raised to 12 euros $14 an hour in the first year under the new coalition government.
The parties also aligned on their aim to build 400,000 new apartments a year to fight housing crisis, lower the voting age to 16 and create a points-based immigration system to draw qualified workers in.
Also promised were adaptations of laws on transgender, family and reproductive rights, in line with the wishes of the young voter base which turned out behind the FDP and Greens.
All three seem to have stuck to their promise of dual citizenship - a huge change for thousands of ethnic Turks, many returning foreign nationals in Germany after decades.