The federal government is now also considering direct state participation in distressed energy companies in order to prevent a possible collapse of the gas supply and the gas industry.

Such an approach could primarily help the troubled gas importer Uniper: Similar to the Corona crisis two years ago, when the state took a stake in Lufthansa, among other things, according to information from the FAZ, the federal government should be able to acquire shares in gas suppliers in the future .

This time, too, the basis is formed by the so-called Economic Stabilization Acceleration Act (WStBG) and the Economic Stabilization Fund WSF contained therein.

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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According to the plans, the entry into the state will be regulated by a new paragraph 29 in the Energy Security Act (ENSIG).

A draft of a corresponding change request from the traffic light groups is available to the FAZ.

If possible, the final version should be decided on Friday in the Bundestag and Bundesrat, so that the companies affected can soon be given a helping hand.

According to reports, the gas importers are losing a three-digit million amount every day because they cannot pass on the sharply increased procurement costs due to the Russian delivery restrictions to their customers.

Managers were full of confidence in Russia

The fact that such a situation has now arisen is due to the earlier views of the companies concerned, which seem outdated today.

A 2018 essay by top managers from leading gas suppliers shows it.

This is directed against criticism of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and can still be found on Uniper's website.

In it, the managers explain that Russian gas supplies are an “essential building block” for security of supply and competitive gas prices.

"We don't know of any gas customer, whether private or industrial, who would rather exchange Russian pipeline gas for more expensive liquid gas from the USA," they argue.

The United States is not denied the right to force its liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the European market.

"But it can't be

that Europe's energy supply is made the plaything of American energy, economic, security and geopolitics." The EU is "well advised to take targeted countermeasures and counteract this".

In addition to Uniper, the companies Wintershall and OMV were involved in the essay published in 2018.

However, as is well known, not only they have had to change their assessment since then.

The current draft of the traffic light coalition and its formal justification states that companies in critical infrastructure in the energy industry can apply to the Federal Ministry of Economics for "stabilization measures", i.e. public equity investments.

These should serve as a “positive continuation prognosis” for the company.

However, there is no legal entitlement to the aid; the Ministry of Finance and the Chancellery must agree to it being granted.

The issue of new shares and details of the entry are similar to the Corona investments.

According to the Energy Security Act, there will be simplifications under company law for state participation in energy companies, for example for the necessary capital increases.

It says: "The board of directors can decide, with the approval of the supervisory board,

Higher prices can be passed on to customers more quickly

The new rule comes in addition to other proposed business assistance programs outlined in Sections 24 and 26 of the Act.

The former enables gas importers like Uniper to pass on the increased procurement prices directly to their customers along the value chain.

The latter regulates that the companies receive direct financial compensation.

So far, there has been talk of a "surcharge" that should compensate for the difference between purchase and sales prices, financed through the network charges of all gas customers.

In the most recent draft, however, the mechanism is no longer called a levy, but "balanced price adjustment".

While these acute measures to secure the energy supply have already been worked out in detail, another government project to curb inflation is still in its infancy: the planned “concerted action”, at the first meeting of which Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Monday afternoon is entitled to representatives from business and trade unions had guest.

The start was "promising", Scholz reported after the meeting, which, as expected, did not bring any results.

In further rounds, common ways are to be sought in the near future as to how economic, tax, energy and social policy can contribute to dampening inflation and its consequences.

Wages, on the other hand, are not a driver of inflation, at least for the time being, said employers' president Rainer Dulger and the chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Yasmin Fahimi, after the meeting.

However, Dulger also emphasized that steady economic growth like before the corona pandemic was "no longer a matter of course".

Fahimi emphasized that the priority now is to "prevent a recession, stabilize locations, maintain value chains and secure jobs."