Hair Salon Thank You Letter

All clear in Berlin?

On Sunday, the capital city to decide on the disclosure of water privatization contracts. Not necessary, says the Senate. For that reason alone you should go

By Jörn Boewe, young world, 11 Feb. 2011

surprise: The Berlin Senator for Economic Affairs and chairman of the Berlin Water Works (BWB), Harald Wolf (The Left), will not participate in the referendum on Sunday on the publication of privatization contracts of the company. "I will not" go to a vote, Wolf announced on Thursday. All documents are published in full, there is no more secret treaties.

2.47 million eligible voters are to vote called. The referendum is successful if the majority of the participants and also at least a quarter of the claimants agree - that is about 615 000 in Berlin. For decision is a bill of the citizens' initiative Berliner water table. "

had 1999, then CDU-SPD Senate sells 49.9 percent stake in the municipal water company to a private consortium that was formed one half of the companies RWE and Vivendi (now Veolia). The Senate had after the fall of the Berlin Wall ten years spent more money as it was in West Berlin 40 years of practice, although the federal government had set its spacious front city promotion in a few years. Unsuccessful showpieces, such as the 1993 failure of Berlin's bid to host the Olympic Games for the millennium or the 1997 with its speculative real estate business into a tailspin guessed semi public / semi-private banking company Berlin verschlechterten die Kassenlage zusätzlich.

Der Verkauf der BWB-Anteile brachte immerhin 3,3 Milliarden D-Mark. Das Problem war, wie es im deutschen Titel eines Kriminalromans von Ross MacDonald heißt: Geld kostet zuviel. Damit die privaten Teilhaber kein unternehmerisches Risiko eingehen mußten, gab ihnen das Land Berlin eine Gewinngarantie. Egal, wie die Geschäfte laufen würden, die privaten Investoren sollten immer eine Rendite erhalten, die zwei Prozent über dem Zinssatz langfristiger Bundesschatzbriefe liegen würde. Sollten die Einnahmen aus den Gebühren nicht ausreichen, würde das Land (das mit 50,1 Prozent weiterhin Mehrheitseigner der BWB blieb) auf seinen Anteil verzichten. Notfalls würden the guaranteed profits of RWE and Veolia are paid from the state budget. This was enshrined in treaties and by law.

complained Taking the PDS and the Greens, both then in opposition, the Constitutional Court of the State of Berlin. This is explained in part unconstitutional - in particular the yield guarantee ("r + 2 percent.") But the Senate and the water companies had taken precautions. In paragraph 23.7 of the consortium had been agreed that if the yield guarantee "wholly or partially annulled by a decision or a constitutional court with higher-ranking law incompatible" would, the Senate has a duty to compensate "the disadvantages of the BWB in full." In other words, the state of Berlin would have to look for ways to meet the declared unconstitutional profit guarantee yet. One in 2003 for the SPD Group in the House of Representatives created, but only a few weeks ago Unpublished legal opinion concludes that such a scheme designed solely to circumvent a ruling by the Constitutional Court, for its part unconstitutional (see sidebar).

in 2002, the government has come "red-red" coalition of the construction of public-private partnership for water operations in the public has always considered Inherited shown. This is more than half correct. Architect of the partial privatization was the former SPD finance senator Annette Fugmann-Heesing (the what is known only to insiders in Berlin, still sits in the House). Architect of the new rules, with Berlin after the Constitutional Court ruling RWE and Veolia yet secured their guaranteed profits, was the opposition leader, former Senator and current economic and BWB-supervisory board chief Harald Wolf (PDS / Die Linke). This was, inter alia, by the tariff calculation was changed to the amortization method. As the former SPD deputy Gerlinde Schermer (one of the few from the SPD, which had voted against the privatization) figured, one has only through this change in six years, 428 million euros more taken with the Berliners. Of these, "maybe 20 percent" in the reserve, so Schermer against JW. The rest was "certainly help to secure the return of the private." When Harald Wolf does not recommend today to take part in the referendum, should the light of its role as a strong recommendation to understand, to go in any case and to vote Yes.