The European Commission will open a formal investigation into Germany's law to promote the use of renewable energies, German news magazine Spiegel reports Sunday, without citing sources.
According to the magazine, Brussels is questioning the legality of excluding large businesses from surcharges slapped on retail power consumers to pay for the shift to renewable energy.
Wednesday, the EU Commission will open a procedure against Germany to examine the legality of this subsidy. The end result could be that large firms would have to repay millions in saved fees, the magazine reports.
Germany's effort to switch to renewable energies has won plaudits from environmentalists, but has run into resistance from companies, which complain that it is driving up energy costs and risking Germany's competitiveness for businesses.
Ahead of the federal election Sept. 22 and growing complaints about the cost of energy in Europe's largest economy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last month that financial support for green energy should be scaled back so as to keep energy costs in check.
Jan Hromadko contributed to this article
Write to the Frankfurt Bureau at djnews.frankfurt@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 14, 2013 09:11 ET (13:11 GMT)
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