The Social Democrats (SPD), Green Party and Free Democrats (FDP) have decided to begin full-fledged coalition talks following the general election on September 26.

Announcing this decision, they presented paper that summed up their weekslong exploratory talks. It foresees comprehensive investments, but no tax increases. It is unclear where the money for investment is to come from.

The SPD and Greens pushed through a minimum wage increase to €12 ($14) per hour. The coal phaseout might be pulled forward — but plans for environmental protection measures and social issues are vague. The Greens had to give in on their planned speed limit on German motorways.

The paper does state there will be no tax increases, no increase in public debt. These were the pro-free market FDP's key campaign promises. So commentators see them as having scored the most points. "For the FDP, the coalition is already paying off,"  wrote the national weekly Die Zeit.

Here is the full text of the exploratory paper:

The next few years are crucial for strengthening Germany and Europe — for the major challenges posed by climate change, the need for digitization, securing our prosperity, social cohesion and demographic change. The basis for this is a comprehensive renewal of our country. SPD, BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN and Free Democrats recognize that Germany needs a new beginning. Together, we are committed to progress. We are united in seeing opportunities in these changes.

We are a constellation that can bring together three parties with different traditions and different perspectives to form an innovative alliance. We can make a contribution to softening political divisions and can initiate new political creativity. In this way, we can modernize society. As a coalition that stands for for progress, we can set the course for a decade of social, ecological, economic, digital and societal renewal.

Germany needs a stable and reliable government that addresses the challenges facing our country. Our talks have shown us that we can succeed in this. We agree on the urgent tasks and have developed common ground with a view to solving them.

We want to be a government also for those who did not vote for us in this federal election. It's about our country, not about raising the profile of individual players. We do not see ourselves as small or large parties, but equal partners at eye level. We overcome political differences in a respectful exchange remaining curious and open to each other's arguments.

The exploratory talks were characterized by mutual trust, respect and consideration. We want to continue in this manner. We are convinced that we can reache an ambitious and sustainable coalition agreement.

Based on the results of the exploratory talks, we want to negotiate how we can modernize our country in a sustainable way. This paper traces the results of the exploratory talks. It covers only those topics on which the negotiating partners wanted to reach a preliminary agreement before entering into coalition negotiations. Not all topics were discussed, and not every topic was discussed in detail. The negotiations that lie ahead will provide an opportunity to do so.

We note the following results of our exploratory talks:

1. A modern state and digital revival

We want a fundamental shift toward an state that enables citizens, that learns and works digitally and acts proactively for the people. The aim is to make life easier. Government action should become faster and more effective and promote economic and social innovation processes. We want to establish a new culture of cooperation that is fed by the power of civil society. Fast administrative, planning and approval procedures are a key prerequisite to modernize Germany quickly. To ensure this, all important decisions are to be made and enforced in the first year of government so that private and state investment can be implemented quickly, and in a targeted and efficient manner. Our goal is to speed up such procedures to be at least twice as fast as before.

The administration is to become more agile and more digital. We will consistently conceive this from the citizens' perspective. Digital applications will be planned and implemented in each case. To this end, we want to subject all laws to a digitization check. The German government's digital policy strategy will be restructured (including an AI strategy, data strategy and blockchain strategy).

Responsibilities within the federal government will be reorganized and bundled. We are committed to driving forward the gigabit expansion. Federalism is the fundamental pillar of our country. In order to increase its efficiency, it needs clarity in terms of divisions of tasks and of funding. We are striving for closer, more targeted and binding cooperation between the federal, state and local governments.

We want to ensure good living conditions in cities and rural areas. It is particularly important to strengthen services in rural areas. Citizens should be able to easily manage their daily lives — this includes the workplace, fast Internet, good transport connections, shopping, access to health services and recreational facilities. We want to ensure that necessary investments (for example, in fast Internet or mobility) are made swiftly where the backlog is greatest.

Even more than 30 years after the peaceful revolution, we remain committed to the task of completing internal unity — socially and economically. Many citizens in eastern Germany have experienced change, and had to cope with disruptions and disappointments. We want to learn from this for the upcoming major transformation processes throughout Germany.

Democracy thrives on trust in all state institutions and constitutional bodies. We will therefore strengthen parliament as a place for debate and legislation. We want to improve decision-making by using new forms of citizen dialog, such as citizens' councils, without abandoning the principle of representation.

2. Climate protection in a social-ecological market economy

Man-made climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We must tackle the climate crisis together. This also presents great opportunities for our country and for Germany as an industrial location: new business models and technologies can create climate-neutral prosperity and good jobs. We see it as our central joint task to bring Germany onto the 1.5 degree path, as stipulated by the Paris Climate Treaty and the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court.

We will consistently further develop the Climate Protection Act before the end of 2022 and launch an immediate climate protection program with all the necessary laws, regulations and measures. All sectors will have to make a contribution: Transport, construction and housing, power generation, industry and agriculture. We will monitor compliance with the climate targets across all sectors and over the course of several years. We will make it our joint mission to drastically accelerate the expansion of renewable energies and remove all hurdles and obstacles to this effect. To this end, we will significantly accelerate planning and approval procedures. We want to strengthen the decentralized expansion of renewables.

All suitable roof surfaces are to be used for solar energy in the future. This should be mandatory for new commercial buildings and the rule for new private buildings. We will remove bureaucratic hurdles and open up ways to avoid overburdening private builders. We also see this as an economic stimulus program for small and medium-sized businesses and the skilled trades.

Two percent of the state's land is to be designated for onshore wind power. We want to ensure that local authorities benefit appropriately financially from wind turbines and larger open-space solar plants on their territory. We will significantly increase capacity for offshore wind energy.

Meeting climate protection targets will also require an accelerated phase-out of coal-fired power generation. Ideally, this should be achieved by 2030. This requires the massive expansion of renewables and the construction of modern gas-fired power plants, in order to meet the rising demand for electricity and energy over the next few years at competitive prices. To this end, we will take the first of the review steps provided for in the Coal Phase-out Act as early as the 20th legislative period. The gas-fired power plants that are needed to bridge the time until renewable energy supply is sufficient, must be built in such a way that they can be converted to use climate-neutral gases (H2-ready).

The regions affected can continue to count on solidarity-based support. Measures under the Structural Strengthening Act will be brought forward or accelerated. The accompanying labor policy measures, such as the adjustment allowance, will be adjusted accordingly. No one will be left out in the cold. The establishment of a foundation or company to organize the dismantling of coal-fired power generation and renaturation is being examined.

We want to revise the Fuel Emissions Trading Act and European emissions trading in line with the EU's "Fit for 55" program. In the course of this legislative period, we will end the financing of the EEG levy via the electricity price as quickly as possible. In this way, we will reduce electricity costs for private households and businesses. As part of the expansion of renewables, we will develop a new electricity market design.

In the negotiations on the EU's "Fit for 55" program, we support the EU Commission's proposals and want to ensure that the measures in the individual sectors are as as technology-neutral as possible.

In accordance with the EU Commission's proposals, in the transport sector this would mean that only CO2-neutral vehicles can be registered in Europe from 2035 — this will impact on Germany before this date. We want to make Germany the lead market for electromobility and to this end massively accelerate the expansion of the charging station infrastructure. There will be no general speed limit on German roads. As part of climate-friendly mobility, we will support the development of intelligent system solutions for private and public transport.

Species extinction, the loss of biodiversity, is another ecological crisis. We want to take effective measures to protect biodiversity and nature. To this end, we support agriculture in pursuing a sustainable path that is compatible with the environment and nature; at the same time, the goal is to secure a long-term, adequate income for farmers. We want to support farmers in converting livestock farming to animal-friendly practices. A farm-animal label will ensure transparency for consumers. We want to limit the use of pesticides to what is necessary. Plants should be protected in such a way that side effects on the environment, health and biodiversity are avoided.

3. Respect and opportunities in the modern work environment

The best basis for shaping good work is to create a work environment that offers security and flexibility. Many employees and entrepreneurs, are ready to break new ground to embrace change — but they also expect security in order to be able to engage in learning processes. Flexibility enables a creative climate for innovation. The historically grown social partnership and the ability to compromise based on it are key prerequisites for this process of change to succeed.

In order to respond to changes in the world of work and to address the wishes of employees and companies for more flexible working time arrangements, we want to support trade unions and employers to enable flexible working time models. We want to establish a framework for temporary regulations that allow for more flexibility and make it possible for employees to organize their working hours more flexibly within the parametes of collective agreements and which forsee a clear evaluation process. In addition, we want to create a limited possibility to deviate from the currently existing regulations of the Working Hours Act with regard to the maximum daily working hours, if collective agreements or company agreements provide for this ("experimental spaces").

We will increase the statutory minimum wage to twelve euros per hour in a one-off adjustment in the first year. Following this, the Minimum Wage Commission will decide on any further increases. We will make improvements to mini- and medium-jobs: We want to remove hurdles that make it difficult to take up employment that is subject to compulsory insurance. We will increase the medium-job salary threshold to 1,600 euros per month.

In the future, the mini-job threshhold will be based on a weekly working time of 10 hours at minimum wage conditions. This amount will be increased accordingly when the minimum wage is raised to 520 euros. At the same time, we will prevent mini-jobs from being misused as a substitute for regular employment or from becoming a part-time work trap, especially for women.

We want performance to be appreciated. This means that people who work well must also be paid well and have good working conditions. We want to strengthen collective bargaining autonomy, the collective bargaining partners and collective bargaining so that fair wages are paid in Germany — this will also promote the necessary wage alignment between East and West Germany. We will continue to develop co-determination.

We want to promote self-employment through better start-up subsidies and a reduction in unnecessary bureaucracy. At the same time, we want to improve security for the (solo) self-employed.

We want to strengthen continuing education and professional qualification opportunities.

4. Making social security citizen-friendly

We want to create security in transition so that all citizens can lead self-determined lives in this transformation period. Mutual respect only grows when no one feels left behind. We want to break new ground so that everyone also has concrete opportunities for participation and career prospects, and life achievements are recognized. We stand for a reliable and enabling welfare state that supports citizens at every stage of their lives, enables participation, protects against poverty and safeguards against life risks. This commitment is an important basis for encouraging citizens to dare to try something new.

In addition to the statutory pension, both company pensions and private pension plans remain important for a good life in old age. A good and reliable pension after many years of work is important for all employees. It is a matter of establishing good independent security in old age through one's own work. We will therefore strengthen the statutory pension and secure the minimum pension level of 48% of the pre-retirement net income. There will be no pension cuts and no increase in the statutory retirement age.

In order to safeguard this commitment in a sustainable way for the generations, we will introduce partial funding of the statutory pension insurance system to stabilize pension levels and pension contribution rates in the long term. To this end, as a first step we will inject a capital stock of 10 billion euros into the German Pension Insurance Scheme from budgetary funds in 2022. We will also enable the German pension insurer (Deutsche Rentenversicherung) to invest its reserves on the capital market in a regulated manner.

We want to strengthen the pay-as-you-go pension by increasing participation of women and older workers into the labor force, as well as employment-based and skilled immigration.

We will fundamentally reform the current private pension system. To this end, we will examine the offer of a publicly accountable fund with an effective and low-cost offer which includes an option of opting out.

In addition, we will examine the legal recognition of private investment products with higher returns than the previous "Riester model." A subsidy should provide incentives for lower-income groups to take up these opportunities. The current Riester contracts will be protected. We want to increase the threshold for tax-free savings to 1,000€.

We will introduce a citizen's income instead of the current basic income (Hartz IV). The citizen's income should respect the dignity of the individual, enable social participation, and be accessible in a digital and uncomplicated way. It should focus on assistance for returning to the labor market. During the Corona crisis, generous rules on sheltered assets and a moratorium on housing size checks were in place. We are examining which of these rules we want to continue. We are sticking to the obligation for recipients of benefits to cooperate with authorities and are examining how we can reduce bureaucracy in this area. We want to improve the opportunities to earn additional income, with the aim of increasing incentives for gainful employment.

In health policy, we want to make prevention the guiding principle. We want to make our healthcare system strong so that it is well prepared for future crises, such as any new pandemic. To this end, we will learn from the lessons of the COVID pandemic and digitize and strengthen the public health service.

Access to good and reliable health care must be guaranteed everywhere in Germany, whether in urban or rural areas. We want to further develop the system of flat rates per case for hospital financing and rework it for sectors such as obstetrics and emergency care as well as pediatric and adolescent medicine. There is a need for more cross-sector cooperation and networking between the various healthcare facilities and professions.

We want an offensive for more nursing staff. High-quality care is only possible with well-trained care workers, good working conditions and appropriate wages in the care sector. We want to recruit more qualified foreign nursing staff and create the necessary conditions for this.

Nurses should have more time to work with patients. We want to ensure this by reducing bureaucracy, making use of digital possibilities and setting clear, uniform national targets for staffing levels.

Statutory and private health insurance and long-term care insurance will be retained.

5. Opportunities for children, strong families and the best education throughout life

We want to give children and young people better opportunities regardless of their parents' social situation. We focus on the children who need the most support. We want to lift more children out of poverty. In a relaunch of family support, previous benefits are to be bundled in a separate basic child benefit model and paid out automatically so that they reach children without bureaucratic hurdles.

At the same time, we want to further promote daycare centers and (all-day) schools and strengthen educational opportunities and participation. The federal, state and local governments should work together to ensure that every child has the same opportunity to develop and achieve (cooperation principle).

We will provide targeted, long-term support for schools in disadvantaged regions and neighborhoods.

We want to provide long-term support for the states and local authorities in the digitization of education (Digitalpakt 2.0).

We want to anchor strong children's rights in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz).

Our dual education system is a successful model that is respected around the world. We will only be able to meet the growing demand for skilled workers in the future, if enough people have relevant training. We will improve the transition from school to vocational training. We want to optimize and expand youth vocational agencies and launch a vocational training excellence initiative.

We want to improve continued education so that, for example, vocational qualifications can be obtained at any time throughout working life. We want to introduce new instruments to support lifelong education and training. We want to reform the BAföG student benefit system and make it more independent of parents' incomes.

6. Promoting innovation and achieving competitiveness

We want to increase the competitiveness of Germany as a business location as the basis for sustainable growth, prosperity and high employment in a social-ecological market economy. We will provide the best possible support for companies and employees, promote innovation and foster new confidence in innovation and entrepreneurship. To this end, we will strengthen support for start-ups and entrepreneurs and reduce bureaucracy in funding and financing innovation.

We want to support small and medium-sized enterprises and craft businesses to cope with the upcoming challenges. Our economic policy should focus on creating future-oriented framework conditions for a competitive SME sector. To this end, we also need a qualified skilled labor strategy.

We continue to strive for fair competition between business models of large digital companies and locally rooted business. We want to support digitally supported value creation in industry, trade, crafts and services and create a level playing field for this.

Industry is facing a far-reaching transformation, and we will support it in this. We promote regional transformation clusters and will support structurally weak regions. A good research landscape that generates innovations is essential. We want to increase the share of total government spending on research and development to 3.5% of GDP. We need to have more spin-offs from research institutes.

Employee participation in the company is an important element of asset accumulation but also to finance start-ups. We will make employee share ownership more attractive, among other things by further increasing the tax allowance for it.

We want to activate more private capital for transformation projects. To this end, we are also examining what contributions public development banks can make. The Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) [a German state-owned investment and development bank ] should act more strongly as an innovation and investment agency. The equity fund for technologies of the futre is a good example of this. We want to further expand projects such as the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation.

A modern corporate culture also includes new forms such as social enterprises, or companies with tied assets. However, we will prevent new tax-saving structures.

We are striving for better access to data, especially to enable startups and small and medium-sized enterprises to develop new innovative business models in digitization.

We want to strengthen rules-based free trade on the basis of fair social, ecological and human rights standards and advocate a German and European trade policy against protectionism and unfair trade practices. We use European competition law and the strength of the European single market precisely with a view to unfair competition practices by authoritarian regimes.

7. Offensive for affordable and sustainable construction and housing

We want to create more affordable housing. To this end, it is a matter of urgency to build significantly more housing. Our goal is to build 400,000 new homes per year, including 100,000 publicly subsidized homes. To this end, we will convene an "affordable housing alliance" with all key players. Within this framework, we will ensure planning security for the construction industry to build construction capacity.

We will reduce the costs of housing construction through serial construction, digitization, minimizing bureaucracy and standardization. We will strengthen climate protection in new construction and accelerate energy-efficient refurbishment of existing buildings in order to achieve climate targets in the building sector.

As long as not enough affordable housing has been built, the housing shortage, especially in metropolitan areas, prevents reasonable rents from forming in the housing market. We will therefore evaluate and extend the current tenant protection regulations.

We will continue the federal government's financial support for social housing construction. We will give the Federal Real Estate Agency more freedom so that it can build more quickly.

With a new residential community benefit, we are bringing a new dynamic to the construction of affordable housing.

We want to combat the illegal financing of real estate through appropriate measures. This includes proof of taxation for all commercial real estate buyers and a ban on purchasing real estate with cash. We want to allow the federal states to make the real estate transfer tax more flexible in order to facilitate the acquisition of owner-occupied residential property. To counteract this, we close tax loopholes in the acquisition of real estate by corporate groups ("share deals").

8. Freedom and security, equality and diversity in modern democracy

Germany is a modern country with a highly diverse society in which different life plans, life circumstances and histories of origin come together. We see this diversity as an opportunity and want to organize fair participation in all areas and clearly oppose discrimination.

We want to adapt our legal system to this social reality. To this end, we will adapt, among other things, citizenship law, family law, the law on parentage and the law on transsexuals, as well as the regulations on reproductive medicine, and make it possible, for example, to have new models to share responsibility and live together.

Germany is a modern immigration country. Women and men from many countries have found their home here, started families and earn their living. That is why we want to create a modern citizenship law. We want to make the Skilled Worker Immigration Act more practicable. We also want to introduce a points system as a second pillar for attracting qualified skilled workers.

Those who are well integrated in Germany and can support themselves should be able to obtain a legally secure residence status more quickly. We want to make it possible for individuals to speed up this process and improve integration opportunities.

We want to make our safe country even safer. Everyone in Germany should feel safe — in public places, at home and online. To achieve this, the most important thing is more preventive security. We need highly motivated, well-trained and well-equipped police officers. Their presence in the communities make them an indispensable partner for us. The rule of law and proportionality are the standards by which they do their duty for everyone. We want to ensure that they receive the recognition and respect they deserve for their important work.

We want to guarantee freedom and security and strengthen civil rights. Together with the federal states, we will take a holistic view of the state's powers of intervention, as called for by the Federal Constitutional Court, and carry out a general overhaul of the security architecture. We will improve the capabilities and structures for defending against cyber risks and place them on a legal footing.

We will take decisive action in all areas against anti-Semitism, racism, right-wing extremism, Islamism, left-wing extremism, homophobia and every other form of misanthropy, so that diversity is possible with equal security for everyone. The public sector as well as its institutions must set an example here. A Democracy Promotion Act will also serve this purpose.

We will strengthen women's right to self-determination and promote independent livelihoods. We want women and men to be able to participate equally in social decision-making and in working life, and to be equally able to secure their own livelihoods and provide for their old age. We want to counteract the discrimination of women in the labor market and improve the compatibility of family and career. We want to effectively reduce wage inequality between women and men. We will work for more diversity in the world of work and ensure that more women reach management positions.

We want to facilitate the daily coexistence of people with and without disabilities and will therefore further expand the participation of citizens with disabilities in the labor market and by promoting accessibility in everyday life, in housing and in digital space.

We want to supplement the equal treatment article in our Basic Law with a ban on discrimination on the grounds of sexual identity and we want to replace the term "race" in the Basic Law.

We want to safeguard the diversity and freedom of cultural life. We are committed to a strong cultural scene and creative industries, which were hit particularly hard by the Corona crisis.

We want to revise the electoral law to sustainably prevent the growth of the German Bundestag. We want to lower the voting age for elections to the German Bundestag and European Parliament to 16.

9. Investing in the future, sustainable public finances

We want to make the 2020s a decade of investment into our future. To this end, we are pursuing policies to significantly increase investments — both private and public.

Within the framework of the constitutional debt brake (Schuldenbremse), we will ensure the necessary investments into the future, particularly in climate protection, digitization, education and research, and infrastructure. To ensure that the funds made available are actually used, planning processes and approval procedures must be significantly accelerated; investment security must prevail. Capital collection agencies should be better able to invest in technologies of the future.

We will intensify the fight against tax evasion, money laundering and tax avoidance. We will continue to actively campaign for the introduction of global minimum taxation.

We will not introduce any new taxes on assets and will not increase taxes such as income tax, corporate tax or value added tax. We want to give the economy a boost through super write-offs for investments in climate protection and digitization. We want to noticeably reduce tax bureaucracy, for example through higher thresholds and fully digitized procedures.

We want to gain additional budgetary leeway by reviewing the budget for superfluous, ineffective and environmentally damaging subsidies and expenditures.

In view of the high investment needs at the municipal level, we are joining forces with the federal states to examine how to relieve municipalities from old debts caused by structural change.

10 Germany's responsibility for Europe and the world

Germany is facing up to its global responsibility. None of the major tasks of our time can be mastered by our country alone.

We will strengthen the European Union (EU) and meet our responsibilities. We will make our foreign, security and development policy more value-based and more European. We want to increase Europe's strategic sovereignty.

The EU is not a distant project for the future, but has long been a daily reality and a home, not least for Europe's youth, who have grown up without borders. We want to strengthen the European Union in order to strengthen Germany. We will therefore define German interests in the light of European interests. We want to pursue an active European policy — also along the lines of a strong Franco-German partnership and in close cooperation within the "Weimar Triangle" [ a loose cooperation between Germany, France, Poland, Eds.].

We are determined to make the EU more capable of action and more democratic and are committed to an EU that protects its values and the rule of law both internally and externally and strengthens its ability to act. We advocate increased cooperation between the European countries' national armies.

We want to empower Europe's liberal democracies to better fend off disinformation, fake news campaigns, propaganda, and manipulation from within and from outside.

We want to ensure that, on the basis of sound and sustainable public finances, Europe emerges economically strengthened from the pandemic, achieves the goal of climate neutrality and consistently implements the "Green Deal" [a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral in 2050, Eds.]. We want to support measures to strengthen competitiveness in all EU member states.

The EU's Stability and Growth Pact has proved to be flexible. On its basis, we want to ensure growth, maintain debt sustainability and provide for sustainable and climate-friendly investments.

A European digital infrastructure, a common rail network, an energy infrastructure for renewable electricity and hydrogen, as well as research and development at world-class level are prerequisites for European ability to act and compete in the 21st century. We will take the initiative to achieve this.

Our security and the protection of our livelihoods require global cooperation, a strengthening of the United Nations and a rules-based international order. We support and strengthen initiatives such as the Alliance of Democracies. The transatlantic alliance is a central pillar of this, and NATO is an indispensable part of our security. Israel's security is a reason of state for us.

Our soldiers make an indispensable contribution to international security. We are improving the equipment of the Bundeswehr. We want to strengthen the principle of  internal leadership. We want to investigate the evacuation mission in Afghanistan in a parliamentary committee of inquiry. In addition, we want to evaluate the entire mission in an inquiry that includes scientific expertise. The insights gained must be processed in a practical and forward-looking manner so that they can be incorporated into the design of future German missions abroad.

We want to include different perspectives, to develop a common understanding of Germany's role in the world. In the future, German foreign policy should act as a unified whole and we will develop joint strategies across all ministries. The goal is multilateral cooperation in the world, especially in close cooperation with those states that share our democratic values. This also involves systemic competition with authoritarian states and dictatorships. We want to present a national security strategy.

We align our international actions with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We want to ensure that Germany fulfills its international obligations in the areas of development cooperation and international climate financing.

We are committed to the humanitarian responsibility that arises from the German Basic Law, the Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. From this we derive the task of increasing our efforts with our European partners to put an end to the deaths in the Mediterranean as well as the suffering at Europe's external borders. We want to establish procedures for refugee migration in order and fight the exploitative conditions on the escape routes. We want to speed up asylum procedures, family reunification procedures and repatriation and create legal channels. Agreements with third countries on migration should help in this.

We need a disarmament policy offensive and want to take a leading role in strengthening international disarmament initiatives and non-proliferation regimes. We need more binding rules for a restrictive arms export policy and therefore want to coordinate a corresponding EU arms export regulation with our European partners.

We want to diversify the energy supply for Germany and Europe. European energy law applies to energy policy projects in Germany as well.

This text has been translated from German. Here is the original.