With the extension of the energy price brakes, electricity and gas prices for private households will remain capped for a large part of consumption until the end of March 2024. The Union wants to examine a lawsuit against the special fund for energy price brakes.
Late on Thursday evening, the Bundestag decided to extend the energy price brakes for electricity and gas, which expire at the end of the year, until March 31, 2024. However, the MPs rejected the originally planned extension until the end of April. The signals from the EU Commission, which must approve the project, only allow an extension until the end of March, according to the Bundestag’s Energy Committee.
The price caps for electricity and gas were introduced in March of this year and were granted retroactively for January and February. This should protect consumers in Germany from being financially overwhelmed by massive increases in energy prices as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine. The prices are capped for a large part of the consumption of private households – for electricity at 40 cents and for gas at 12 cents per kilowatt hour.
Merz leaves special assets for Energy price brakes check
After the Karlsruhe budget verdict on Wednesday, CDU leader Friedrich Merz is also having the special fund for energy price brakes checked for constitutionality. Merz said on ZDF on Thursday evening that he had commissioned a legal report on whether the Constitutional Court’s decision also applied to the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF).
He expects an initial result next week or at the beginning of the week after next at the latest. “On this basis, I will then make the decision as to whether we will also go to Karlsruhe against the WSF,” announced Merz. The energy price brakes are financed from the WSF.
The federal government is also examining what consequences the Karlsruhe ruling has for the WSF, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) described as a “double whammy” against increased energy prices as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The WSF was provided with 200 billion euros in loans in 2022 while the debt brake was suspended. The government thus created a stockpile of debt. This is used to finance, among other things, the gas and electricity price brakes.
Repurposing of Emergency loans unconstitutional
On Wednesday, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the reallocation of emergency loans from the corona pandemic to the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) carried out by the traffic light at the end of 2021 to be unconstitutional and void. This means that the coalition is now 60 billion euros short. The court also referred to the principle of annuality. This could mean that emergency loans taken out while the debt brake was suspended could only be used in the year in which the new debt was taken out.