User:BruxVKU/Verband kommunaler Unternehmen

The Verband kommunaler Unternehmen e. V. (VKU) is a German advocacy group representing municipally owned infrastructure undertakings and economic enterprises in Germany. It represents the interests of its members towards legislators on state-, federal- and European level. Its member companies are active in the fields of energy- and water supply, wastewater treatment, telecommunication, waste management and street cleaning.

History
The VKU was founded in 1949 in Rüdesheim am Rhein. After the Second World War, the VKU supported municipal enterprises in their restructuring efforts. After the collapse of the GDR in 1989, the VKU aided cities in Eastern Germany in reconstructing municipal energy and water supply infrastructure.

The VKU today
In 2019, the VKU had a total of 1474 member companies with a combined annual turnover of around 118 Billion Euros and over 268.000 employees. Their combined market shares in their areas of activity amounted to 61% for electricity, 66.7% for natural gas, 86.4% for drinking water, 70.2% for heat supply and 43.8% for wastewater disposal in 2019. Every day, the VKUs members dispose of 31.500 tons of municipal waste and are decisive contributors to Germany’s recycling quota of 68%, which is the highest among European Union member states. In addition, they supply over 6 million customers with broadband infrastructure.

The association itself is structured according to the fields of activity of the member companies: The VKU has a dedicated department for energy, for water and wastewater, for telecommunication, for waste collection, -treatment and city cleaning. The core activity of the VKU concerns informing and influencing the legislative process by issuing press statements, formulating common positons for its members and elucidating them for decision-makers.

In 2007, the association moved its headquarters from Cologne to Berlin. In addition to its headquarters, the VKU operates country-level branches all over Germany as well as an office in Brussels. Since January 2016, the head major of Mainz, Michael Ebling, is President of the VKU. The operative business of the VKU is run by its managing director Ingbert Liebing, who has been appointed in April 2020.

VKU in numbers
(2019)

Combined market shares of VKU-members: 1 Source: StatBA, 20162 Source: AGFW, 20163 Source: StatBA, 2013

Weblinks

 * Website of the VKU