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Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) wants to ensure that the relief reaches consumers when the EEG surcharge is abolished - and oblige electricity providers to pass it on accordingly.
"We want to ensure that the reduction is passed on to the consumer in full, with legal certainty," said the Green politician to the "Handelsblatt".
A law is required for this.
When asked whether the surcharge under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) would be abolished on July 1st, Habeck said: "That's the plan."
Earlier decision due to high energy prices
In its coalition agreement, the traffic light coalition had agreed to abolish the EEG surcharge from the beginning of 2023.
Because of the high energy prices, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in particular is now urging the decision to be brought forward.
The Greens parliamentary group, on the other hand, had recently criticized the abolition of the surcharge this year.
The EEG surcharge was introduced in 2000 to finance the expansion of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power plants.
It is added to the electricity bill for end customers.
The income from this surcharge goes to the so-called EEG account of the transmission system operator.
The grand coalition had already reduced the EEG surcharge from 6.5 to 3.7 cents per kilowatt hour on January 1 because electricity prices had risen significantly in autumn 2021.
Since then, electricity has remained extremely expensive - and the surplus on the EEG account has continued to grow accordingly.
In January alone, more than two billion euros were added.
Consumers paid for this surplus.
Now the traffic light coalition would like to completely abolish the EEG levy as further relief in the energy crisis, as they say.
After the abolition, the electricity customers should no longer pay money into the EEG account, from then on the state will take care of that exclusively.
sos/Reuters/dpa-AFX
