EU should relax criteria for energy aid, says German government paper
BERLIN, March 1 (Reuters) - The German government is urging the European Union to loosen its criteria for giving energy aid to companies, according to a position paper for the European Commission seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
The paper suggests amending several aspects of the EU's Temporary Crisis Framework (TCF), which has come under criticism from industry organisations for not providing sufficient state aid and overly complicating the process.
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"Particularly for energy-intensive basic industries, which have been particularly affected by the sharp rise in natural gas and electricity prices, the TCF's support options in their current form are not sufficient to cushion the impact of the energy crisis," the paper says.
The German government suggests extending the TCF until April 2024 to cover next winter. It is currently scheduled to elapse at the end of this year.
In its paper, Berlin also calls for the state aid cap to be raised to 400 million euros ($426 million) from the current 150 million euros, and urges the Commission to suspend the requirement that a company demonstrates a drop in profits in order to take advantage of electricity and gas price brakes.
German companies are not currently making use of electricity and gas price brakes in large numbers. Even ailing rail operator Deutsche Bahn, Germany's largest electricity consumer, has yet to decided whether to apply for aid.
($1 = 0.9387 euros) (Reporting by Markus Wacket Writing by Friederike Heine Editing by Matthias Williams and Mark Potter)