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Bund Distributes Pool-Renovation Grants From €250m Climate Fund

The Bundestag budget committee’s selected awards expose a roughly €3.2 billion shortfall between demand and available money and heighten calls for larger federal support.

Overview

  • The Haushaltsausschuss decided on Wednesday to allocate parts of a €250 million pot from the Sondervermögen Infrastruktur und Klimaneutralität to selected municipal swimming‑pool projects.
  • Saxony will receive €8.54 million for three projects including €5.04 million for Leipzig’s Schwimmhalle West and €2.5 million for DresdenKlotzsche.
  • Schleswig‑Holstein won €5.9 million for eight pools with payments such as €1.62 million for Grömitz and about €1.24 million for Lauenburg.
  • The program was heavily oversubscribed: 942 applications asking for about €3.2 billion were submitted to the Bundesinstitut für Bau, leaving most requests unfunded.
  • Local MPs welcomed constituency awards but opposition figures and municipal leaders warned the small fund will not close the renovation backlog and urged a substantial, ongoing increase in federal support to secure energy upgrades and keep swimming lessons and local facilities running.