The EU Commission plans to siphon off high profits and make savings compulsory at peak times.
The EU Commission intends to intervene vigorously in the energy market. In order to lower prices for end customers, excessive profits from energy companies are to be skimmed off and redistributed. For producers who do not produce electricity from gas, but from renewable energy such as water, wind and sun or from nuclear power, the income should be limited to 180 euros per megawatt hour. The profit that is above that should be paid to the state, which in turn relieves the customers. According to calculations by the Commission, there is a huge redistribution of a total of 140 billion euros in the EU.
At the same time, gas and oil companies should pay a solidarity tax. If their profit is more than 20 percent of the average of the past three years, they have to hand over a third of it to the state for compensatory measures.