Three days before the important meeting of energy ministers on Friday in Brussels, the EU initiative to relieve electricity customers will be watered down further. The commission presented the explosive bill two weeks ago. Among other things, the regulation forces the member states to skim off the high profits from cheap power plants and put the money into aid packages for electricity consumers. The federal government is planning something like this anyway. For the EU law to come into force, energy ministers must agree. The Czech government, which is currently conducting business in the EU Council of Ministers, sent out a new compromise proposal for the legal text on Tuesday. That’s the Süddeutsche Zeitung and it gives Member States more flexibility in implementation.
For example, the law stipulates an upper price limit of 180 euros per megawatt hour for suppliers of green, lignite and nuclear power. The exchange price for electricity is significantly higher – the difference should go to the states. The reason for the high prices are the exorbitant costs of gas-fired power plants. They de facto determine the exchange price for electricity. However, the new compromise now states that the federal states are free to waive ten percent of this difference above the price cap. In any case, governments should be given the right to set higher limits for certain power plants if the plants do not manage with 180 euros per megawatt hour.
The regulation also requires governments to identify the 10 percent of the hours when electricity is the highest and then reduce consumption by at least 5 percent during those peak hours. However, the compromise text now gives Member States the option of defining the peak period more flexibly. Instead of 10 percent, governments can choose just 3 percent of the hours.
The compromise tightens the planned solidarity levy: the regulation establishes a one-time special tax for oil, gas and coal companies. The governments should compare their current annual profit with the average of the four years 2018 to 2021, as the law now states. The Commission wanted to leave it at three previous years. Profit increases of more than 20 percent should be subject to a special tax of at least 33 percent. The new compromise proposal allows governments to levy this levy for 2022 or for 2023 – or even for both years. The Commission, on the other hand, only had a special tax in mind for 2022.