The country leaders agree: industrial companies should pay a lower electricity price for a certain period of time and thus be relieved. But the traffic light coalition is not as united as the prime ministers.
At their meeting in Brussels, the Prime Ministers made a joint statement in favor of introducing a temporary, cheaper electricity price for companies with high energy consumption. This is reported by the dpa news agency, citing the statement by the country heads.
The state leaders deliberately no longer wanted to talk about an “industrial electricity price” but rather a “bridge electricity price,” emphasized Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil, who currently chairs the Prime Minister’s Conference. The states’ demand stipulates that affected companies have to bridge a transitional period until sufficient electricity from renewable energy sources is available. To do this, these companies would have to receive government support.
Without this support, corporations that need a lot of energy and are internationally active would no longer be competitive, emphasized the SPD politician: “We’re talking about steel and chemistry, we’re talking about copper and aluminum, about glass, ceramics, cement and more many other industries more.” These sectors are threatened with “very, very great damage” and the country leaders in Brussels have communicated this concern “very urgently” to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Wüst puts pressure on federal government
In their “Brussels Declaration,” the Prime Ministers also warn that the increased energy costs as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine represent an acute obstacle to the recovery of the economy and the return of industrial production to pre-crisis levels. This is precisely why a solution must be found, demanded North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst – “as quickly and as effectively as possible”.
Wüst sees the federal government as responsible for bringing about such a solution, as he said in the joint morning magazine from ARD and ZDF emphasized. It is not the EU that hesitates when deciding on a reduced electricity price. “The EU Commission can only deal with things that the nation states want from it, namely in this case the approval of an industrial electricity price,” said Wüst and added: “Whether Germany wants it is decided by the federal government. They argue, sometimes again.”
The open question about financing
In fact, the stance of the traffic light parties regarding an industrial electricity price is divided. The Greens – especially Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck – support it, as does the SPD parliamentary group. The FDP rejects the proposal and Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also recently expressed skepticism, saying the question of financing must first be clarified.
CDU politician Wüst also had no direct answer to the question of how an industrial electricity price should be financed – that is also a matter for the traffic light coalition. But he expressly emphasized: “The only thing that would be more expensive than everything that is currently being discussed would be to do nothing.” That would cost industrial jobs every month and high investment sums in future technologies would be lost.
In a letter to Chancellor Scholz, the Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, also emphasized his concerns about Germany as a business location. He reiterated his demand to counteract this. This includes not abolishing the peak load equalization of the electricity tax and introducing effective aid instruments for energy-intensive industries such as an industrial electricity price.
Dreyer: industrial electricity price alone is not enough
However, the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, warned that a temporarily cheaper electricity price would not be enough in view of the enormous competitive disadvantages for European companies due to high energy costs and against the background of large subsidy programs among competitors in China and the USA.
“Similar to the Germany Pact that Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced, we need a Europe Pact,” emphasized the SPD politician. There also needs to be a reduction in bureaucracy, fewer hurdles in procurement law and fewer requirements in state aid law in the European internal market. “This is important in order to develop future technologies in Europe,” emphasized Dreyer.
Green group invites you to a joint debate
Federal Economics Minister Habeck expressly welcomed the unified support of the state leaders for the concept of industrial electricity prices – especially the approval of the CDU Prime Ministers.
Habeck’s party colleague and chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, said she has extended an invitation to all parliamentary groups to talk about temporary subsidies for electricity costs for energy-intensive companies. She once again called the debate about an industrial electricity price correct.