The gas price brake should not only help citizens, but also companies in the crisis. However, according to the will of the commission of experts used, a payment should be subject to conditions. The EU also makes specifications – and these are likely to make the process more bureaucratic than hoped.
According to a newspaper report, companies should only be granted the gas price brake if they received the affected locations. The “Handelsblatt” reports, citing the final report of the “Gas and Heat Expert Commission” set up by the federal government, which is to be presented on Monday. In the event of violations, the companies would have to pay back the state aid.
This is to be proven “usually by a location and transformation agreement between collective bargaining or company parties or in the supervisory board, which is co-determined on an equal basis,” according to the report. If there are no such structures in the affected companies, they have to prove that 90 percent of the jobs have been preserved one year after the end of state aid. Otherwise, the support must be repaid.
There was no agreement in the Commission on linking the gas price brake to a bonus and dividend ban, reports the “Handelsblatt” with reference to groups of participants. The decision for this part was not unanimous.
As the “Handelsblatt” further reports, the payment of the aid is more complicated than expected. The extension of the state aid crisis framework decided by the EU Commission on Friday, which will apply from January, expands the possibilities of the member states to help domestic companies. However, support must therefore be graded according to the energy consumption of the company.
For the sake of simplicity, the expert commission had proposed paying out support services to industrial companies as a lump sum. Lawyer and ex-government adviser Achim Steinbach told the “Handelsblatt”: “As expected, the grants will under no circumstances be granted above a certain amount without a cap and unconditionally.” In the case of energy-intensive companies, help is conceivable for up to 80 percent of consumption, but the total aid should not exceed 150 million euros.
In addition, the payout is only legal if the profit before taxes and depreciation is 40 percent lower than in the past or if there are currently losses. Steinbach explains that an application procedure should therefore be necessary: ??”There will definitely be a bureaucratically complex verification procedure this time,” he told the “Handelsblatt”.
