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#Germany economy minister urges Brussels to back support plan for heavy industry:

Germany’s new economy minister has warned that the survival of the country’s heavy industry is vital to Europe’s sovereignty, as she pleaded for Brussels to approve a plan to support German energy-intensive companies. Katherina Reiche said she was hopeful the European Commission understood the need for Berlin to subsidise electricity costs for sectors such as chemicals and steel to help end Germany’s longest postwar period of stagnation.

Minister Reiche is 100% right in her argument about sovereignty of European supply chains but her argument highlights a much deeper contradictions in the EU policy which had been historically largely pushed by Germany and European Greens: high costs of energy are direct result of EU emission policies, such as ETS.

The original purpose of these policies was to reduce CO2 emissions from emission intensive industries by their modernisation and innovation, but combined with zero import tariffs it has only resulted in virtual reduction by expelling these industries abroad, where energy is cheaper and where nobody cares about CO2. I’m truly puzzled by the blindness of those “environmentalists” who celebrate deindustrialisation of Europe as a win for environment, when the same products are now manufactured in Asia with zero concern about pollution or emissions, both of which don’t care about national borders.

So what Reiche says is correct but it needs to apply to all European energy and industry sectors, not just some selective subsidies for German companies only.

Source: https://archive.is/Zgk49

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