EU secret paper: Germany is apparently threatened with job cuts due to the energy crisis

Due to the energy crisis, German industrial sites and thus hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake: IG Metall and Co. are sounding the alarm.

Berlin/Munich – Industry unions see hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk because of the high electricity prices in Germany.

There is a risk of site closures in the steel, chemical and building materials industries, the trade unions IG Metall, IG BCE (mining, chemicals, energy) and IG BAU (construction, agriculture, environment) said on Tuesday (March 7) in Berlin.

They therefore called for a nationwide day of action. 

IG Metall calls on "the federal government to introduce a special industrial electricity price for energy-intensive sectors that they can use in Europe".

In a European comparison, German industry has to pay one of the highest electricity prices.

EU secret paper: Germany should face job cuts

Jörg Hofmann, first chairman of IG Metall, otherwise sees his industry in an unsolvable situation.

According to his forecast, the exorbitant electricity prices mean “sooner or later” the disappearance of steel production, the aluminum industry and other energy-intensive sectors from Germany.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs would then be directly and indirectly affected, according to Hofmann.

According to a report by

a secret paper from the EU Commission is now also circulating among the MPs.

This lists the dangers for Europe's competitiveness and uses numerous examples to reveal that German medium-sized companies in particular are facing major challenges.

Energy crisis: Germany's industry at a disadvantage internationally

Confidence in the economy is currently worse than at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The energy crisis hit German industry in a phase of unprecedented change and, in comparison, harder than its global competitors, the USA and China.

According to a survey by the “European Roundtable for Industry”, more than a third (34 percent) of managing directors and CEOs are planning to temporarily suspend or reduce their investments in companies, according to

report.

15 percent would intend to hire them permanently.

The high electricity prices had meant an international competitive disadvantage even before the start of the Ukraine war, explains the Bavarian IG Metall boss Johann Horn.

He added that high electricity prices in Germany not only endanger industrial sites and jobs.

Affordable electricity is also “an indispensable building block for the transformation to climate-neutral production”.

Industrial location Germany threatened by energy crisis

The head of IG Metall Augsburg, Roberto Armellini, reports that the risk of site closures and job cuts due to high electricity prices primarily affects the Lech steelworks in the region.

Production according to weather conditions, in order to be able to fall back on a cheaper exchange electricity price, is currently the reality there.

"Unfortunately, we are miles away from being able to plan at the moment," says Armellini.

It is therefore important to achieve a fair industrial electricity price this year.

Michael Vassiliadis, Chairman of the IG BCE, also sees a risk for the chemical industry that production could be relocated and plants could be closed - even if companies like the chemical group Wacker try to maintain their locations in Bavaria.

That would then be “the first step towards de-industrialization in Germany”.

He therefore considers an industrial electricity price at the level of other regions of the world to be absolutely necessary.

(na/dpa)