The government’s “defensive umbrella” against high energy prices is wide open. But far from all the money has been called up so far. Why is that?
Around a quarter of the maximum 200 billion euros in the “defense shield” against high energy prices has been spent so far. By the end of February, 55.3 billion euros had been called up, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. “Business Insider” had previously reported on the numbers.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had already assumed in January that the protective shield would not be used in full because gas and electricity prices were not rising as much as feared. However, he rules out using the money for other purposes. Instead, correspondingly fewer loans should be taken out.
With the “double boom” worth up to 200 billion euros, the federal government wanted to finance price brakes for gas and electricity as well as corporate aid by 2024. According to “Business Insider”, most of the money so far has been used to rescue ailing gas importers, including the nationalization of the Uniper group.
Source: Stern
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