Berlin (Reuters) – The federal states, SPD and Greens are putting pressure on the introduction of a subsidized industrial electricity price for energy-intensive companies.
The 16 country heads traveled to Brussels on Wednesday to talk to the EU Commission. “Ursula von der Leyen has a duty here as Commission President,” SPD European politician Katarina Barley told the Reuters news agency. The Greens parliamentary group co-chair Katharina Dröge also called for the introduction in order to keep energy-intensive companies in Germany.
Because of the high price of electricity, many companies in Germany would have to “sooner or later close their doors,” Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil warned on ZDF on Wednesday. Weil admitted that the costs are very high – but they would also arise if the raw materials industry, which was no longer competitive due to high electricity prices, went down. This would lead to social upheaval.
In his Bundestag speech on Wednesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not address the industrial electricity price, which he views critically. He only said that the expansion of green electricity production is the “safest, fastest and most sustainable way to lower electricity prices”. In the traffic light government, the FDP is also against an industrial electricity price. Weil emphasized that Scholz deliberately did not make a final decision, but only spoke out against “harmful permanent subsidies”.
Critics of the industrial electricity price point to skepticism in the EU Commission, which would have to approve this subsidy. But it is also a European issue when many companies are threatened with collapse, said Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister. Barley argued similarly: “The EU needs an industrial strategy so that the European economy can remain competitive worldwide,” she said. “In the current situation, part of this must be a temporary industrial electricity price.” Von der Leyen should be open to discussion “and not hide behind state aid law”. Energy prices have skyrocketed as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We must resolutely oppose this and temporarily support German industry as the heart of the European economy,” said the SPD politician.
Weil suggested taking the money for a reduction in the electricity price for some companies from the Economic Stabilization Fund or the Climate and Transformation Fund. So far, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has rejected this. All federal states support Weil’s position – but the industrial electricity price would have to be paid by the federal government. At the same time, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister spoke out against subsidized electricity prices for car companies such as VW, which are not per se energy-intensive companies.
(Report by Andreas Rinke, edited by Hans Seidenstücker. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and the economy) or [email protected] (for companies and markets).)
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