Medium-sized industrial sectors make an urgent appeal to the German government

For 10,000 medium-sized industrial companies with around one million employees, it is now all or nothing. If the new budget as a result of the Federal Constitutional Court's judgement does not bring relief on energy prices, this will have serious consequences for Germany as a business location in the new year.

Christoph René Holler, spokesperson for the Bündnis faire Energiewende (BfE): "The SPD, Greens and FDP must finally put an end to the stalemate over the new budget and send a clear signal to industry in Germany.10,000 medium-sized industrial companies in the country are running out of time. Many have no choice but to outsource production from Germany and abandon operations in Germany in the face of record energy prices and ever new regulatory requirements. Deindustrialisation is progressing at all levels, from large corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises. This is why the budget reorganisation must not come as a nasty surprise, because Germany will not succeed in its transformation without medium-sized industry."

In a three-point immediate action package, the Alliance for a Fair Energy Transition is calling for the originally planned electricity price package to be implemented as a matter of urgency, the electricity tax to be reduced and the peak equalisation for natural gas to be continued. In addition, electricity grid fees must not be allowed to continue to rise. They are already the second-highest component of electricity bills for companies. The BfE also proposes suspending purely national CO2 pricing until EU emissions trading (ETS 2) has also been introduced for smaller companies.

In the BfE's view, Germany's energy and industrial policy as a whole must be geared towards long-term investment security. BfE spokesperson Holler: "Reliable long-term framework conditions for manufacturing companies are the indispensable basis for the development and implementation of innovative business models, the preservation and transformation of existing value creation structures and for the conversion to an internationally exemplary emission-free economy with attractive working models and a high level of prosperity. If this does not succeed, our prosperity, social cohesion and democracy will be existentially jeopardised."