Compared to the 200 billion euros that the federal government in Berlin plans to deal with the energy crisis, the amount is small.

Nevertheless, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of the member states have long wrestled over how to finance the 20 billion euros with which the European Commission wants to push the EU's decoupling from Russian energy supplies.

The Commission wants to use the money as part of the Repower EU program in May to promote the expansion of green electricity and energy saving, but also investments in liquid gas terminals and alternative pipelines.

Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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The problem was that the Commission wanted to finance the money by selling 250 million EU emission allowances from the so-called market stability reserve.

This met with fierce resistance from climate protectors.

After all, the reserve is actually intended to ensure that the market for CO2 emission rights is not flooded with excess rights as in the past - and thus keep the price of CO2 high.

The Environment Committee of the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers have therefore now adjusted the financing.

The Environment Committee wants to bring forward the auctioning of certificates that were planned for the years 2026 to 2030 and distribute the income to the member states by the end of 2025.

This has the positive side effect that the currently high energy prices are now being dampened without weakening the EU's climate goals, said CDU MP Peter Liese.

After all, more CO2 must be saved from 2026 onwards.

On Tuesday, the EU finance ministers also decided to bring forward the auctioning of CO2 rights.

But that should only bring in 5 billion euros.

They want to take the remaining 15 billion euros from the innovation fund, with which the EU actually supports innovative projects to reduce CO2 emissions.

Before the money can be distributed, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers must now agree on a common line.

There should also be a need for discussion about how the money will be distributed between the member states.

The EU Parliament also wants 50 percent to flow into cross-border projects.