German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made progress in persuading fellow EU members to extend state aid for coal beyond 2014, after her government agreed to close a legal loophole that would have allowed Germany's subsidized coal mines to operate beyond a planned phase-out in 2018, German news magazine Die Zeit reports Thursday.
Citing government sources, Die Zeit said a majority of EU member states now supports the German position, with only Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands objecting, the weekly magazine said in its online edition.
The European Commission in July proposed phasing out state aid to coal mines by 2014, a decision which surprised the German government and which can only be overruled with a so-called qualified majority, the report said. PHASE-OUT OF GERMAN COAL SUBSIDIES BY 2018 IRREVERSIBLE
The German cabinet Wednesday endorsed a bill that will annul a phase-out amendment, passed in 2007 when Merkel was in a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD). The SPD, which has a strong support base in the traditional coal mining areas, sought to keep the mines open beyond 2018 in case Germany needed to ramp up coal-fired power generation as nuclear plants were phased out.
Merkel's current coalition partner, the liberal FDP, campaigned for an even earlier exit from coal subsidies.
"It's important to me that there won't be a reversal of the phase-out," Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle (FDP) said in a statement after the Cabinet meeting.
"This new bill will ensure that the phase-out of subsidized coal in 2018 is irreversible."
With the reversal of the nuclear phase-out bill currently going through parliament, the government's energy strategy will rely less on coal-fired generation. Hard coal, including imports, accounted for 20% of Germany's power generation in 2009. Germany's coal-mining industry, which employed around 34,000 people in 2007 and still operates six mines in the west of the country, receives around Eur2.5 billion each year in government handouts.
Citing government sources, Die Zeit said a majority of EU member states now supports the German position, with only Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands objecting, the weekly magazine said in its online edition.
The European Commission in July proposed phasing out state aid to coal mines by 2014, a decision which surprised the German government and which can only be overruled with a so-called qualified majority, the report said. PHASE-OUT OF GERMAN COAL SUBSIDIES BY 2018 IRREVERSIBLE
The German cabinet Wednesday endorsed a bill that will annul a phase-out amendment, passed in 2007 when Merkel was in a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD). The SPD, which has a strong support base in the traditional coal mining areas, sought to keep the mines open beyond 2018 in case Germany needed to ramp up coal-fired power generation as nuclear plants were phased out.
Merkel's current coalition partner, the liberal FDP, campaigned for an even earlier exit from coal subsidies.
"It's important to me that there won't be a reversal of the phase-out," Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle (FDP) said in a statement after the Cabinet meeting.
"This new bill will ensure that the phase-out of subsidized coal in 2018 is irreversible."
With the reversal of the nuclear phase-out bill currently going through parliament, the government's energy strategy will rely less on coal-fired generation. Hard coal, including imports, accounted for 20% of Germany's power generation in 2009. Germany's coal-mining industry, which employed around 34,000 people in 2007 and still operates six mines in the west of the country, receives around Eur2.5 billion each year in government handouts.
