Members of the Republic Union of Employers (RUZ), Association of Employer Unions (AZZZ), Association of Industrial Unions and Transport (APZD) as well as the Slovak Towns and Village Association (ZMOS) still lack any information on how the government plans to address the energy crisis with respect to large companies and organizations, which is why they demand talks with relevant ministries, TASR learnt on Tuesday. "We still don't know what's going to happen, namely how much money is to be allocated for aid, how much money will go to aid for individuals, how long the aid is to be provided and thus specifics of the system's operation. What's paradoxical here is that we asked for help in the form of having scale and distribution fees scrapped. Unfortunately, we've learnt that the opposite is happening and some scale fees for businesses have even been increased," RUZ President Miroslav Kiralvarga stated at a joint press conference.
According to AZZZ President Tomas Malatinsky, the problem is not that the government doesn't address the energy aid. "The problem is that the schemes of aid haven't been finalised, they're not notified and hence, we don't know whether we can count on them. We, in our firms, don't know what kind of aid is going to be delivered," he underlined.
In response acting Prime Minister Eduard Heger's (OLaNO) spokeswoman Lubica Janikova said that the government will provide compensation to companies for energy also in 2023. "In addition to the current scope of aid, an increase in monthly aid limits and the extension of aid to other entities are also being considered. In a short time, we expect the European Commission to approve another aid scheme for industry," she said, adding that the Economy Ministry has already provided €117 million in aid to entrepreneurs, energy-intensive enterprises, municipalities and civil associations.
According to the Economy Ministry, the approval of the 2023 state budget will allow it to continue providing compensation for energy-intensive companies. The Economy Ministry pointed out on January 5, it announced the continuation of aid in terms of aid scheme 2.1, which is based on the temporary crisis framework for state aid measures to support the economy as a result of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The ministry plans to announce the call in February 2023.
The call will also be extended to help smaller consumers of electricity excluding households with a total annual consumption of electricity for the previous year of no more than 30,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) and consumers of gas excluding households with a total annual consumption of gas for the previous year of no more than 100,000 kWh, who meet the conditions of the call.
APZD President Alexej Beljajev emphasized that "the fact that no clear rules have been set to date poses problems to our firms in making their calculations. We don't know today what energy prices we can expect this year, which in the case of enterprises with high energy consumption such as industry, causes relatively serious problems. Our competition, particularly that from outside Europe, which enjoys low energy prices, is starting to become a grave problem to us. That's why I urge the government to start talking with us immediately on what's going to happen with industry in Slovakia."
ZMOS chair Branislav Treger pointed out that towns and municipalities are stakeholders particularly in water management and heating companies. "If the business (industrial) sector can manage to hold up for several more months, heating companies under communal ownership won't last a single month more. Household heating prices have been capped, they can no longer be supplied at production price. This means these firms will no longer be able to buy gas for the next season. This year's government measures have already caused regions and municipalities to lose €618 million," claimed Treger. He added that under such circumstances, radical cuts to living standards of the people must be expected. (TASR)
