Image: APA/Kaniza
“We can no longer rely on this source,” said Knill on Sunday in the ORF “press hour”. When asked about OMV’s supply contract with Gazprom, which was extended from 2018 to 2040, Knill said that Russia had been “completely miscalculated” and that Austria had been deceived.
Knill said that despite the renewed increase in Russian supply volumes, Austria must continue to assume that Russia will no longer supply gas overnight. It is therefore a matter of ensuring a reliable, affordable gas supply for the next few years. It therefore needs other supplier countries such as Norway or the Gulf States and infrastructure for the import, such as liquid gas terminals and pipelines.+
Knill estimates that the state’s energy aid will not fully take effect. Because the gas price has fallen to EUR 50 per megawatt hour, the industry will not need the full amount of the budgeted EUR 7 billion, according to Knill. He expressed his confidence that companies will no longer find themselves in a situation where the energy market no longer functions.
Weaning from government funds
After the massive state aid, first in the corona crisis and then in the energy crisis, it is necessary to wean ourselves off from state funds. You have to get away from the help and back to personal responsibility. The IV will withdraw when there are calls for more help. “We also have to take ourselves by the hand,” said Knill.
The head of the IV described the labor market in Austria as “positively tense”. More than 200,000 vacancies could not be filled. “We have almost full employment.” Knill said it’s about exploiting all potential, the greatest potential is part-time. There are false incentives here because part-time work is tax-privileged compared to full-time work.
Potential in foreign workers
There is further potential in foreign workers. More immigration via the red-white-red card is needed. Austria must do location marketing and must actively recruit workers from Kosovo and Bosnia as well as from South America and Southeast Asia. Knill warned that there will be over 500,000 labor shortages over the next few years.
The industry representative also campaigned for free trade. The planned Mercosur agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is not just about Argentine beef, but also about sales markets for Austrian exporters. Knill named climate protection as an argument for the Mercosur agreement: In the free trade agreement, the countries would also undertake to comply with the Paris climate agreement.
The Paris climate protection agreement from 2015 was supposed to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees, but according to experts it is already too late for that. The Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have ratified the Paris climate protection agreement, as have Austria and all EU countries, but have so far failed to meet the agreed targets. According to NASA, the earth was about 1.11 degrees warmer on average in 2022 than at the end of the 19th century, i.e. before the industrial revolution.
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