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Heating in an apartment: the data basis is missing
Photo: Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez / dpa
It is a "Herculean task" that the expert commission on the gas price brake has to deal with, according to the SPD politician Katja Mast: The committee is supposed to present its concept on Monday, just two and a half weeks after it was set up.
While some try to lower expectations in advance, others insist on planning security.
Mast, the first parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, summarizes the problem: "Within a very short time, the leading experts from science, politics and business must make a proposal as to how we can get the skyrocketing energy prices in the heating sector under control".
The problem is complex because the energy suppliers lack the data basis for many of the models that are currently circulating.
It is also not easy to answer the question of how to curb the price but still get consumers to save.
The chairmen of the commission had declared that they would nevertheless develop a "resilient proposal" for a gas price brake over the weekend.
The traffic light coalition wants to use a total of up to 200 billion euros to support consumers and companies because of the rising energy prices.
A gas price brake could cap the prices for part of consumption in such a way that private households and companies are not overwhelmed.
A quick one-time payment was also discussed.
200 billion euros, “but no one knows what for”
According to Mast, the Commission could revise its proposal later if necessary.
"It is important for us that the proposals take effect quickly, because many citizens and companies are already under enormous pressure," she said.
“In the best-case scenario, we should already take into account the social situation of the consumers affected.
If necessary, this can also be done in a second step with a differentiated model.«
According to SPD leader Saskia Esken, Germany will get through the winter well with the planned energy price brakes.
Esken told the editorial network Germany that they are powerful means of reducing consumer prices to a reasonable level.
“By a combined effort, we will get through the winter well.
We don't leave anyone alone in this difficult situation.« This applies to consumers and social institutions such as companies of all sizes.
But those addressed are impatient.
On the one hand, there is the industry: The federal government must "clarify as quickly as possible how companies will be relieved by the gas price cap," demanded IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann.
The existence of up to 15 percent of metalworking industrial companies is at risk, he told the Augsburger Allgemeine.
The ongoing uncertainty threatens to seriously damage Germany as an industrial location.
"We have no planning security at all," complained the head of the NRW brewery association, Michael Hollmann, in the "Rheinische Post".
“The gas commission has been working for weeks and nothing is happening, at least to the outside world.” The federal government has announced 200 billion euros, “but no one knows what for”.
Industry President Siegfried Russwurm meanwhile called on consumers to save energy despite the planned gas price brake.
"There is no way around it," he said, according to the preliminary report of the "Welt am Sonntag".
The fact that the gas storage tanks are more than 90 percent full is better than expected, but not enough.
»Further references from the remaining sources are essential.
But also saving.«
Caritas President Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa, herself a member of the Commission, called for a solution based on solidarity.
"200 billion euros - in the end nobody can stand out in the rain," she told the "taz" at the weekend.
"Especially not the people who live in facilities for the elderly, integration assistance or child and youth welfare." She emphasized that it is still unclear to what extent the subsidized gas prices also apply to these people and larger providers of social institutions also benefit from relief .
There must also be solidarity when it comes to who can save how much.
"In a care facility for the elderly, you can't simply cool down the meeting room to 16 degrees - not for older people who freeze more easily anyway," said Welskop-Deffaa.
If energy were to become really scarce, »then it might make more sense to specifically take a few manufacturing companies off the grid for the winter.«
The head of the Ver.di union, Frank Werneke, also demanded that the gas price brake should not be set "unrealistically low".
Residents of old houses could not regularly save more than 20 percent of consumption in winter, Werneke told the "Rheinische Post".
»It is now important to ensure that the gas price brake – and by the way also the electricity price brake – does not become an air act.«
The chair of the expert commission, Veronika Grimm, criticized the time pressure to which the committee was exposed.
"The decision to convene such a body could have been made a few months ago, after all, the development of gas prices was foreseeable." have to find a gas price brake that can actually be implemented«.
pbe/dpa
