Two billion euros “in the course of today, but no later than 12:00 tomorrow”, according to a letter from the Vienna Alderman for Finance Peter Hanke (SPÖ) on Monday to the Ministry of Finance. Hours later, it was said that the urgent financial aid may not have been necessary at all. How much money is actually needed? Six to ten billion were also launched. Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) was still unable to answer Tuesday morning.
He emphasized to the Ö1 “Morgenjournal” on Tuesday that the talks will be continued soon. According to the department head, not all the facts are on the table yet. However, Brunner said it was probably a matter of “speculative matters” by Wien Energie. “We’re going to look into all of that.” It also involves supplying two million Wien Energie customers. The federal government has the tools, they also want to help, at the same time Brunner made it clear: “We can’t just deliver everything.”
But could the federal government drop Wien Energie at all? Local energy experts doubt that. In reality, Wien Energie, with about two million customers, is simply “too big to fail”. In other words, no other provider can guarantee an equivalent supply of electricity, district heating and gas – at least not alone.
Comparison with Germany “lag”
Compared to Germany, which has already prepared a rescue package for the country’s energy suppliers, the finance minister explained that these very instruments would not help in the case of Wien Energie. “The comparison is flawed,” says Brunner, because speculative transactions are not covered in Germany either.
Other state suppliers gave everything clear in an APA broadcast on Monday. At the moment, there are no financial problems in sight. This is partly due to the different purchasing and generation structures of electricity. No other state uses or has requested state guarantees.
Source: Krone
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