The 200 billion euro support plan launched by Germany to protect its economy from the energy crisis, criticized by European countries, is “justified”, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.
Although some European Union (EU) officials accuse him of acting alone, Berlin argues that these measures “are not isolated and have been taken in other places,” Olaf Scholz recalled. France and Spain have implemented measures to limit the impact of high energy costs on consumers, as Germany is about to do with an upcoming price cap.
Competition distortions
The announcement last week of this new aid valued at 200,000 million euros irritated its European partners. Germany is being criticized for doublespeak: advocating austerity in Brussels while spending lavishly. The amount and the lack of coordination of the initiative make some countries fear distortions of competition, because not all European states can release such a sum.
In addition to similar measures in other European countries, Berlin stresses that its plan will be spread over several years, which will avoid excessive distortions.
The chancellor also rejected the establishment at European level of new common loan instruments to respond to the crisis, such as the post-Covid recovery plan for 2020. This was suggested in a platform on Monday by the European Commissioners for Economy and Internal Market, Paolo Gentiloni and Thierry Breton.
A European endowment of 750,000 million euros
Olaf Scholz calls for the sums released in 2020 to be used instead, a large part of which have not yet been spent by European states.
This European recovery plan, aimed at “investments for the future”, had been launched thanks to the agreement of Germany, then governed by the conservative Angela Merkel, who had ended up joining the initiative.
Source: BFM TV
