The phenomenon of excess profits also occurs in solar and wind energy, report The standard. According to Energy Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA), it is complex to intervene. “I don’t want to make people happy with a dead sparrow,” she says on Radio 1.
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Nuclear energy has the greatest surplus profit, but these are unprecedented times for renewable energy as well. message this newspaper Monday morning. For example, Flanders pays one billion euros per year in green energy certificates. ‘I have been working on the phenomenon of the over-subsidisation of both solar and wind energy for a year and a half,’ responds Flemish Minister of Energy Zuhal Demir. The morning on Radio 1. She found it difficult to intervene.
• Comment | Can the government not get anything back from the market?
‘Some of that has been concreted in regulations. If we change something, we risk having to pay compensation’, she says. The minister therefore does not want to act hastily. She certainly wants to avoid empty promises. ‘The solution must be legally conclusive. Otherwise we make people happy with a dead sparrow’, says Demir.
VAT reduction
The minister also says that he is studying the energy bill to see what could still be done at Flemish level, such as the costs charged for public services. At the same time, she warns that people will not immediately feel this in their portfolio. She advocates a more structured approach. She also looks at the Flemish Climate Fund. The income that comes in there – 70 or 80 million euros, according to Demir – must flow back to the consumer, for example by supporting renovations. The minister says that 300 million euros has already been reserved for this.
The N-VA minister is silent about a VAT reduction. “I’m not going to tell them how to do it federally, but when you see that VAT on coal is 12 percent and that on electricity is 21 percent, it goes without saying that something has to be done,” it sounds. ‘What one does must not have any effect on the index basket and therefore on wages,’ she warns.
European annoyance
Demir had harsher words for the European Union. ‘The Green Deal can not Green Steal turn into.’ The minister acknowledges that gas prices are subject to Russia’s politics, but Europe has also caused prices to rise, she says. ‘It is a deliberate policy of Europe. They want to push people towards a different form of energy’, says Demir. She says it’s too much and too soon. The consumer’s portfolio can influence the decisions arising from the European Green Deal don’t follow, she suggests. ‘I had a conversation about this with the cabinet of Frans Timmermans (European Commissioner for Green Deal, ed.). The ECB is also talking about green inflation.’
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