Klingbeil calls for security in energy prices
Following his announcement of an early end to the price brakes for electricity and gas, FDP leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner has come under fire from his coalition partner, the SPD.
The co-chair of the Social Democrats, Lars Klingbeil, said on the ARD program "Anne Will": "Unilaterally announcing the end without discussing it together is not acceptable." Klingbeil emphasized that the SPD wanted there to be security in case prices shot up. However, the Ministry of Finance sees no lack of agreement.
Lindner had said in an interview on Friday that the state price brakes for electricity and gas would expire at the end of the year and not at the end of March, as recently planned. The background to this is the budget ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court on November 15, which means that the government is missing out on billions. This also affects numerous other projects.
"An overall package is needed now"
"We shouldn't be having this difficult debate in the coming weeks over individual announcements by individual ministers," warned Klingbeil. "We now need an overall package. We need to work on this and when it is ready, it can be announced."
The price brakes will be financed from the economic stabilization fund. The SPD politician said that it was absolutely clear that this fund would have to expire at the end of the year following the ruling; this would automatically mean that the price brakes would also expire. However, the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP had not discussed how uncertainties in energy costs would be covered afterwards. "This must be discussed in the government," said Klingbeil.
The Federal Ministry of Finance has since responded to the criticism from the weekend. "Lindner merely expressed a necessity following the ruling of the Constitutional Court. There has been agreement on everything with the Chancellor and Economics Minister for days," said ministry circles. "The internal coordination between the SPD and the Greens could possibly be improved."
Consumers must expect low additional costs
The price brakes were introduced in March of this year and also applied retroactively for January and February. They were intended to prevent consumers from being overburdened by a sharp rise in energy prices as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The energy markets have since recovered. According to calculations by tariff comparison portals, consumers will only have to expect comparatively low additional costs when the price brakes expire at the end of the year.
- Despite the expiration of the state price brakes for electricity and gas at the end of the year, as proposed by Finance Minister Christian Lindner, consumers are expected to face only relatively low additional costs due to the recovery of energy markets.
- The disagreement between Christian Lindner and Lars Klingbeil over the early end of the electricity and gas price brakes highlights the need for cooperation and discussions within the coalition government to ensure security for consumers in case of price increases.
- As the SPD's co-chair, Lars Klingbeil emphasized the importance of an overall package to tackle rising energy costs and the impact of the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling, suggesting that this should be a topic of discussion within the governing coalition.
Source: www.dpa.com
