Select a language
On December 17, the European Commission the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) be changed, reports Die Welt.
The daily explains that approximately 2,300 companies in high-energy consumption sectors, such as chemicals and metalworking, currently benefit from some €23bn of exemptions from the tax paid by private individuals and other economic sectors in what the Commission insists is a breach of European competition law.
However, the daily notes —
… this view is not shared by the [new] German government, which has thus entered into its first major conflict with Brussels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Bundestag: ‘given that other European countries continue to benefit from cheaper energy costs than those charged to German industry, I cannot see why we are being criticised for contributing to a distortion of competition’.
