BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s economy minister said on Monday that a government programme to lower electricity prices for manufacturers will likely be introduced at the beginning of next year while talks with EU competition authorities are being finalised.
“We are in the final stages of negotiations with the European Commission. I expect that we will introduce the industrial electricity price on January 1, 2026,” Minister Katherina Reiche told journalists at a briefing in Berlin.
Newspaper Handelsblatt on Monday cited estimates by an alliance of think tanks led by advisory body DENA as saying the scheme could cost the German state 4.5 billion euros ($5.25 billion) over three years, based on a targeted industrial electricity price of 5 euro cents per kilowatt hour.
Reiche also said that a separate programme to provide financial support for sectors that are heavily reliant on purchasing green house gas emissions rights was being favourably viewed by the EU.
Reiche said the EU Commission was sending “positive signals” for an extension of the programme, dubbed electricity price compensation, far beyond 2030.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Holger Hansen, Editing by Miranda Murray)
