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Chancellor Olaf Scholz after the meeting with employer and employee representatives in Berlin
Photo: JENS SCHLUETER / AFP
How can politics reduce the increased energy costs and help companies and citizens?
A commission of experts is now dealing with these questions.
In October she should achieve results, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz after the second so-called concerted action with trade unions and employers.
"We will also get the price problem under control," said Olaf Scholz.
The chancellor emphasized that the coalition's most recent measures have brought relief totaling around 95 billion euros on the way.
Scholz confirmed the federal government's offer to exempt additional payments from companies for the workforce of up to 3,000 euros from taxes and social security contributions if employers and unions agree on this.
Employer President Rainer Dulger welcomed this, but at the same time emphasized that not all companies could make these one-off payments.
"Many companies are on the brink of economic collapse." These payments must therefore be voluntary and flexible.
DGB boss calls for quick decisions
The head of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Yasmin Fahimi, said that the unions would find practical solutions with the employers.
She called for quick decisions to prevent a wave of bankruptcies, structural disruptions and job losses.
It is good that the Commission will already present results at the end of October.
Above all, it is important to relieve people even more of the high energy costs.
According to the federal government, the around 20 members come from the energy industry, including E.on and RWE, from business associations such as the BDI and the BDEW, as well as from trade unions and science.
The commission of experts is to be headed by Industry President Siegfried Russwurm, the business wise man and energy expert Veronika Grimm and Michael Vassiliadis, head of the IGBCE trade union.
Scholz had already invited trade unions, employers and scientists at the beginning of July, following the example of the concerted action of the former SPD economics minister Karl Schiller in 1967.
A third meeting is scheduled for November.
The aim of the consultations is to alleviate the burden of inflation and the energy crisis.
Annual inflation in Germany averaged 7.9 percent in August.
With the expiry of the tank discount and the 9-euro ticket, experts fear that inflation could climb towards ten percent or even more at the end of the year.
ani/Reuters/AFP/dpa