Minister of State Cornelia Pieper expressly welcomed the decisions on cultural relations and education policy made by the budget committee of the German Bundestag on 11 November 2010. The budget committee has created a new item in the 2011 budget, providing eight million euro for the promotion of the German language abroad by the Goethe-Institut.

”We thus underscore once again that spending on education must not be cut,“ Minister of State Pieper said.

The provision for German schools abroad was also increased by 2 million euro. Additionally, cuts to church-based cultural relations projects were successfully avoided. The German Poland Institute of Darmstadt will become a recipient of Federal institutional funding for the first time.

The budget of the Federal Foreign Office is to include a total of 714 million euro for cultural relations and education policy, compared with 723 million euro in 2010. The level of funding for these areas of policy thus remains nearly constant, while savings of 2.8% are being made in the overall budget of the Federal Foreign Office.

”This draft sends a strong signal that we continue to make education and culture a high priority, even in times of budget consolidation,“Minister of State Pieper said.