(The legal term par condicio creditorum is a Latin term, referring to equal treatment of debtors in bankruptcy.) As the German government announced a five-year plan to subsidize energy costs for industry, Italy demanded the same treatment from the EU. The German plan aims at fixing the energy price for manufacturers at €70/MWh, with an expense of €28 billion until 2028. Apparently, the EU Commission has given a green light (or not yet given a red light), so that Italian producers are accusing Brussels of discrimination. The EU Commission in fact is putting pressure on Italy to lift its subsidies for certain categories of consumers, which include lower-income sections of the population.
Antonio Gozzi, the head of the Italian Steel Producers Federation (Federacciai), declared that the German measure is threatening to “irreversibly damage Italian industry,” which is paying €129/MWh. “No company is able to invest in the future, in the currently uncertain national framework and in view of the suffered competitive disadvantage,” Gozzi told Italian news agency ANSA.
