Berlijn woedend over afwezigheid EU-commissaris Oettinger bij beslissing over de kolensubsidies vorige week (en)
German EU commissioner i Guenther Oettinger i is in Berlin's bad books for missing a meeting last week where his colleagues agreed a tougher-than-expected line on subsidies to ailing coal mines, a decision with important implications for thousands of jobs in his home country.
According to a news report in Spiegel Online, Chancellor Angela Merkel is furious that Mr Oettinger missed the crucial meeting last Tuesday (20 July) to attend at a mid-level conference in Washington instead.
At the Brussels meeting, the college of commissioners decided that loss-making mines in the EU must be closed down by autumn 2014.
In the run-up to the decision, Berlin had been expecting EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia - whose native Spain also has many jobs dependent on government aid to mines - to suggest that the subsidy regime be extended for one last time until 2023. The expectation was that 2018 would be the final compromise - a year in line with the German government's domestic promises on the matter.
According to the Spiegel Online report, Mr Oettinger's cabinet mailed Berlin the day before to suggest that a narrow majority would see the subsidies extended to the wished-for date.
However, on the day itself the opposite occurred. Mr Almunia was outnumbered by a flank of commissioners saying that they would agree only to a short extension to the subsidies or their immediate end. And Mr Oettinger, to the chancellor's chagrin, was in Washington attending a 'clean energy' conference. A conference to which Germany itself only sent a state secretary rather than a minister.
Berlin is still intending to try and alter the decision. It is hoping that economy ministers in the autumn will agree to a 2016 end date for the subsidies - total aid to the hard coal sector in the EU was €2.9 billion in 2008.
If this is achieved, Mr Oettinger will have a chance to repair his standing in Berlin's eyes by persuading the commission to overturn its 20 July decision in favour of the new date.
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