The European Union is enabling the German government to provide electricity price relief to companies this year: The Ministry of Economics has succeeded in securing the “cumulability” of the industrial electricity price and electricity price compensation, Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) told the Handelsblatt. This negotiating success requires additional budget funds amounting to around one billion euros. “We must make these funds available,” the minister urged.
Electricity price compensation has long been relieving companies of CO2 costs, whereas the industrial electricity price was a newly introduced measure. Previously, the simultaneous use of both instruments was prohibited. This has now been changed. Reiche told the Handelsblatt that the EU Commission had “accepted our argument on this point—that this step is necessary given the extremely high energy prices resulting from the current crisis.”
Image: John MACDOUGALL / AFP
A spokesperson for Reiche stated on Tuesday that the European Commission’s decision to expand the scope for state aid regarding electricity price relief—in light of the crisis in the Gulf region—sends an “important signal for the competitiveness of energy-intensive industry.” The new state aid framework provides for temporary, more extensive relief options for companies that are particularly electricity- and trade-intensive through the industrial electricity price—specifically, the partial combination of electricity price compensation and the industrial electricity price. Sectors such as steel, chemicals, and paper will benefit from these measures.
The spokesperson added that the German government had previously advocated “intensively” to the European Commission for improvements to the state aid framework. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs is now vigorously pushing within the government to ensure that the new flexibility regarding state aid rules is quickly utilized at the national level.
Author: AFP translated by Blackout News