The Federation of German Industries (BDI) is urging lawmakers to ease the burden on the country’s struggling companies by cutting electricity costs.
BDI director Holger Lösch told dpa on Friday that high electricity prices “endanger industrial production and jobs in Germany.”
“A reduction in the enormously increased network rates is urgently needed as an immediately effective measure,” Lösch said.
The comments came as German lawmakers prepared to debate a bill by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s minority government to curb network costs and thus electricity costs.
The transmission system operators will receive a federal subsidy of up to €1.32 billion ($1.4 billion) in the coming year.
However, following the collapse of Scholz’s three-party coalition, his government no longer has a majority in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house.
Politicians from the conservative opposition bloc CDU/CSU have already called the proposal insufficient and said their group will not support it.
Lösch agreed that the government’s proposal to co-finance the subsidy for transmission network costs for the coming year falls far short of what companies need.
“Moreover, the government’s proposal is unclear in terms of financing and timing,” he added.
