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Production of ship propellers in Waren an der Müritz: The metal industry often applied for energy aid
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
Shortly before the end of a program with which the government wants to support companies with high energy costs, only a fraction of the state aid has been paid out.
A total of five billion euros are available for this, four of them in the current year.
Of this, only around 140 million were approved and around 112 million euros were transferred, the Federal Ministry of Economics said in response to a question from Left-wing MP Christian Görke.
With the "Energy Cost Reduction Program" announced in July, companies with high consumption can still apply for grants of up to 50 million euros until the end of the year.
By December 6, 1,343 companies had applied, and 602 companies had already received a grant.
The Ministry of Robert Habeck (Greens) now admits that the applications "so far have remained below the estimated needs".
On the one hand, the government blames the limited demand on the "restrictive legal basis for state aid and the associated verification procedure".
On the other hand, large energy consumers in particular have often paid prices at pre-crisis levels in the current year and have therefore not met the requirements for aid.
From the economy there had been criticism of the slow processing of the applications.
"After the aid stuttered for months, the government is only slowly coming out of the quark," says left-wing politician Görke.
It must be doubted "whether the application criteria are at all practicable".
