The European Union's executive is to knuckle under to Germany and drop a demand that all subsidies to loss-making coal mines in the EU be phased out by 2014, allowing the payments to run to 2018, European Parliament sources said Friday.
The European Commission said in July that uncompetitive mines should be closed off by October 15, 2014, arguing that subsidies were bad for the environment and fair competition, dpa reported.
But Germany - which would be heavily affected by such a plan - complained that keeping this timeline would compromise the competitiveness of its coal industry and cost too many jobs.
Following a concerted lobbying campaign by Germany, the commission is likely to revise its proposal, allowing subsidies to run until the end of 2018, sources in the parliament said. The EU legislature has already called for that date to be adopted.
EU ministers are set to meet in Brussels on Friday, with the coal question one of the key points on the agenda.
They are also expected to endorse the decision. Of all 27 EU member states, only Germany, Romania and Spain would be directly affected by the call to phase out subsidies.
The bloc's other coal-mining states are not expected to feel any impact from the prolongation, meaning that no country has a particular economic reason to oppose the German push.
EU to knuckle under to Germany in coal subsidies row, sources say
The European Union's executive is to knuckle under to Germany and drop a demand that all subsidies to loss-making coal mines in the EU be phased out by 2014, allowing the payments to run to 2018, European Parliament sources said Friday.
