The German government set the federal budget for 2026 in motion on Wednesday, which plans significant funding cuts for waterways and shipping, according to the BDB.
The funds for replacement, expansion, and new construction measures on federal waterways are expected to decrease to 863 million euros next year. In the as-yet unapproved 2025 budget, 895 million euros were allocated for this purpose, according to the association.
Funds for Infrastructure Projects
Thus, the funds for the maintenance of transport infrastructure, such as dredging and sediment management, are to decrease to 367.5 million euros. In the as-yet unapproved 2025 budget, 520 million euros were allocated for this purpose. BDB Managing Director Jens Schwanen:
"In the regular budget, there is now hardly any more money available that goes beyond the funding for pure maintenance measures. Numerous dilapidated weirs, which ensure the safety of the population's lives and property near river areas, always take precedence over all other structural facilities. With the currently proposed budget estimates, expansion projects, which may even be beyond the Rhine, are moving far out of reach, as the infrastructure special fund does not inexplicably co-finance the waterways."
This budget estimate would also not align with the statements in the coalition agreement, Schwanen continued. For the upgrading of waterways, the federal government wanted to organize 'sufficient additional funding with planning security and
develop a financing and implementation plan' as it would read there. According to the BDB Managing Director, this is no longer mentioned anywhere. Schwanen:
"If the waterways administration now instead hopes that leftover rail funding that went unspent over the year could be used, that does not provide a planning-secure nor a sufficient financial basis."
Reduced Shipping Support
Schwanen:
"We hope that course corrections will still be made during the parliamentary process in the fall. Perhaps financing possibilities will arise from the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF): Federal Transport Minister Schnieder announced at the beginning of July a four-year initiative backed with 400 million euros for climate-friendly shipping and ports. We
will be happy to engage in discussions with the Federal Ministry of Transport!"
The aid for shifting oversized and heavy cargo (GST) to water is to be abolished next year. Moreover, the reduction in training support to 4.4 million euros planned for the current year will be maintained in 2026.
In practice, this means, according to Schwanen, a halving of eligible training contracts in shipping. And the funds for the fleet modernization program decrease to 29 million euros. This further reduction, according to experts' assessments, due to multi-year funding commitments in the area of large projects like aft ship replacements, will lead to the phasing out of climate-friendly fleet modernization, Schwanen
