Weißwasser fears for promised jobs for federal office

CDU politicians from eastern Saxony are calling for a clear commitment from the federal government to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control in Weißwasser. "Trust has already been lost with the decline in the number of occupied positions and the rejection of the new building. Now we need a clear political decision in favor of the location," explained Görlitz District Administrator Stephan Meyer (CDU).

The authority is of great importance for Lusatia - as a "qualified employer, as a visible sign of the reliability of state commitments and as a central building block for the success of structural change".

Meyer, together with CDU member of parliament Florian Oest, called for reliability for the Weißwasser site in a letter to Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). "There must be no cuts in the number of promised 350 staff positions or in the planned investment costs for the new main building," emphasized Oest. The agreed cutbacks in the public sector must not be made at the expense of structural change in Lusatia. "Federal authorities are still significantly underrepresented in eastern Germany compared to western Germany." The federal government must keep its word.

The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, headquartered in Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main, is a higher authority within the remit of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The branch office in Weißwasser was opened in 2020 by the then Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) and is considered one of the federal government's central structural change projects in Lusatia.