Vattenfall, RWE, EnBW and Eon receive money from the federal government for their remaining electricity volumes - the amount of compensation for the premature nuclear phase-out has now been determined.
After the Fukushima disaster, Germany abandoned nuclear energy.
The energy suppliers had sued for compensation.
Now the federal government and the corporations have come to an agreement.
Berlin - They argued for ten years, now the unexpected breakthrough: The German government has agreed with the energy companies on compensation for the accelerated nuclear phase-out.
As emerges from a joint declaration by the Environment, Finance and Economics Ministry on Friday, the groups RWE, Vattenfall, Eon / PreussenElektra and Enbw are to receive a total of 2.43 billion euros in compensation for lost profits and investments made in vain.
The
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
had already reported on the agreement on Thursday evening, but it was not officially confirmed at first.
Nuclear phase-out in Germany: Vattenfall receives most of the compensation
According to the figures that have now been officially announced, Vattenfall will receive the largest part of the compensation with 1.425 billion euros.
880 million euros are earmarked for RWE, 80 million euros for EnBW, and 42.5 million euros would go to Eon / PreussenElektra.
According to the information, all existing legal disputes would be resolved with the agreement - including the lawsuit by Vattenfall before the International Court of Arbitration of the World Bank (ICSID), with which the group originally wanted to obtain six billion euros in compensation.
After the U-turn after the accident in Fukushima: judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court
With the agreement that has now been reached, a ten-year legal dispute comes to an end.
The companies' claim to compensation arose from Germany's surprising withdrawal from nuclear energy in 2011.
With the U-turn after the reactor accident in Fukushima, which will be the tenth anniversary of March 11, the federal government at the time withdrew the extension of the term that had only been decided a few months earlier and set fixed shutdown dates for the nuclear reactors.
As a result, the operators suffered damage for which there must be compensation, ruled the Federal Constitutional Court in 2016.
It was not until last year that the judges in Karlsruhe decided after a lawsuit by Vattenfall that the federal government had to completely re-regulate the basis for compensation payments - it was unreasonable.
Federal government pays corporations billions for phasing out nuclear power - law planned
The corporate bodies still have to approve the current agreement.
Then the key points should be anchored in a contract and transmitted to the Bundestag *.
The final regulation should then come into force with a new law.
As reported by the ministries, the payments serve on the one hand to compensate for residual amounts of electricity that companies can no longer generate due to the earlier shutdown of their systems.
That applies to RWE and Vattenfall.
On the other hand, it is a matter of compensation for investments made in vain - which concerns EnBW, Eon / PreussenElektra and RWE.
(dpa / frs)
* Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA