Response to interpellation 2022/23:248 on electricity support for companies
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the government is working intensively on electricity support for companies and that the EU Commission has approved support for electricity-intensive companies 1. KD emphasizes that companies without their own electricity contract are not directly eligible for support, but that landlords can apply for support 1. KD claims that they are now driving electricity support for both households and companies 2 and that they are moving from words to action 3. S argues that the government is not delivering fair support to tenants and companies in northern Sweden 4. S criticizes that the state aid notification to the EU has not been submitted 4 5. S considers the answer regarding support for companies that pay via rent to be insufficient. S suggests that one should listen to industry organizations to enable support for companies without their own electricity contract.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! [The member] has asked me if I and the government intend to take any measures to support companies without their own electricity contract where the electricity cost is charged through the rent, and if I and the government intend to take any other measures to counteract new bankruptcies as a result of the high energy price. Isak From has further asked me when companies in northern Sweden will be able to participate in the electricity support for companies.
The Government has worked intensively to get the electricity support for companies in place. On 22 December 2022, the Government tasked the state-owned enterprise Svenska kraftnät to re-apply to the Energy Markets Inspectorate to use so-called capacity fees to finance measures that, in the short term, can benefit businesses and legal entities. Svenska kraftnät submitted a new application to the Energy Markets Inspectorate on 4 January 2023. The application was approved on 11 January 2023. Just over a month later, on 20 February, the Ministry of Climate and Enterprise and the Ministry of Finance referred two proposals regulating the payments of the electricity support to companies. In parallel, a dialogue was also initiated with the European Commission regarding the state aid application for the support. The referral responses are now being processed within the Government Offices, and a formal state aid application will be sent as soon as possible.
A consequence of the Energy Markets Inspectorate's decision is that only electricity end-users with an agreement with an electricity grid company are eligible for support. This means that companies without their own electricity agreement where the electricity cost is included in the rent will not be directly eligible for support. However, their landlord will be able to apply for electricity support from Skatteverket. It is then up to the landlord to decide whether the received support shall be passed on to the tenants. The Government cannot force landlords to pass on the support. Generally, however, the Government considers that they should do so as far as possible.
In addition to the electricity support for companies, the Government has implemented several measures to facilitate for entrepreneurs in the crisis. On 26 January 2023, the Government decided on an extra supplementary budget for 2023 where expanded possibilities for temporary deferrals of payment of certain taxes and fees were proposed. The Riksdag has decided according to the Government's proposal, and the changes entered into force on 13 February this year. This means that deferrals may be granted for more accounting periods and also for accounting periods that fell during the period April-June 2022. The outer time limit for the original deferral period for the affected taxes and fees is also postponed to 12 September 2023.
The government also allocated funds in the budget bill for 2023 for an electricity subsidy for electricity-intensive companies. On 22 December 2022, the subsidy was notified as state aid to the European Commission, and on 15 February 2023, the Commission approved the subsidy. The day after the Commission's decision, the government made a decision on a regulation for the subsidy which entered into force on 6 March 2023. The subsidy to electricity-intensive companies is granted regardless of where the company is headquartered. This means that even entrepreneurs in northern Sweden, provided they meet the requirements in the regulation, can participate in the subsidy.
With this said, I am aware that many of the country's entrepreneurs are in a very strained position as a result of electricity prices. The Government is following the situation very closely while we repeatedly make decisions to expand Sweden's power production, or pave the way to expand Sweden's power production and build the energy system as a whole stronger.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Energy and Industry, for the answer! It was clear, although I may have had greater expectations for the answer. I must also thank you for that we have had the interpellation debate so soon. I truly appreciate that we can meet here again during one of the Riksdag's standing interpellation debate times on Tuesdays.
Mr. Speaker, one must ask how the government is actually doing. More than decently, perhaps a single electricity subscriber in southern Sweden, who managed to get out more than 700,000. It was exactly 773,669 kronor that were paid out, according to Försäkringskassan and Sveriges Radios Ekot.
Then one consumes a lot of electricity - so much electricity that Försäkringskassan has now concluded that it concerns a company. It is probably an agricultural company, i.e., a company that has manure pits or other activities that consume a lot of electricity. When one notices that individuals in the countryside suddenly consume a lot of electricity, it is something that has happened. Either it is someone growing something that is not legal and which generates imprisonment, or someone has started a production that is not completely clear and possible for inspection.
It is naturally very good that the electricity support for individual families with small children and pensioners is now being paid out. But what about all those who have electricity via their rent? They are supposedly to receive nothing, or else they have to apply with their landlord. As we have understood it, there is a corporate cap of 20 million, which means that large property owners will hit this cap. This probably also means that those who would benefit most from receiving the support will not be able to get it.
It is not enough, as the Minister for Energy and Business says, to wish that the money is spent. Yes, we can wish that. But now we actually have a government, and we assume that the government governs its agencies. If the government had had an ambition that the support should be fair and also go to tenants and to companies and individuals in northern Sweden, it would have ensured that it delivered that.
We also hear something else in the answer that was very clear. During the question period on Thursday, the Minister for Energy and Business said that an application to the Commission had been submitted. Now we are told, and see in writing, in the answer that an application to the Commission regarding electricity support for companies has not been submitted. We will have that discussion in the next contribution.
Aida Birinxhiku (S)
Madam Speaker and Minister! At the end of January, I had my first interpellation debate in this chamber to demand answers regarding the electricity support for companies.
I emphasized that the government's lack of a decision hits companies and jobs hard, and I repeated my question regarding when the companies will receive the promised electricity support. I unfortunately received no answer from Minister for Energy and Business Ebba Busch.
It has now almost been two months since the debate took place. The companies have still not received any electricity support even though it was supposed to be in place on November 1, even though they were promised compensation well before Christmas, and even though the number of warnings and bankruptcies has increased at a rapid pace.
Madam Speaker! That companies are not allowed to share in the electricity support is bad enough, but even the government's handling of the issue is under all criticism.
Firstly, Minister Ebba Busch stated at the beginning of January that the government would shortly submit a state aid notification to the European Commission. It has been nearly three months since then. Three months cannot be seen as "shortly".
Most noteworthy, however, is that the Minister, just as my colleague here mentions, during last week's question period, answered that the government has already submitted the state aid notification to the EU Commission. When my colleague asked a question about the electricity support and the state aid rules, the Minister answered: "We will return to the state aid assessment. It is part of what is being assessed now against the Commission and what we have submitted." Now, just a few days later, the Minister answers that the government will submit the notification as soon as possible. Thus, no state aid notification has still been made.
Secondly, the Minister has pointed out several times that it is not possible to speed up the EU Commission. But the Commission's spokesperson has been clear that the time taken largely depends on the dialogue that the government has with the Commission. The fastest processing is obtained by those Member States that have a close and extensive dialogue with the Commission before the state aid notification itself is submitted.
When I pointed this out in my previous interpellation debate in January, the Minister responded that the government had already initiated a close and frequent dialogue with the Commission. But now the Minister presents that the dialogue was only initiated on 20 February, when the proposals were sent out for consultation.
Against this background, we have requested that the Committee on the Constitution review the government's statements. It is absolutely fundamental that the government speaks the truth and also provides a complete picture of relevant circumstances, especially in a matter of such great importance for many companies.
Madam Speaker! The Minister's announcement that companies will be able to apply for the electricity support at the Swedish Tax Agency from and including May 30 is not sufficient. What the companies want to know is when the support will be paid out and when they can have the money in their accounts. Furthermore, the announcement assumes that the EU Commission actually approves the government's formal state aid application, which the government still has not submitted.
When does Energy and Business Minister Ebba Busch and the government intend to submit the state aid notification to the EU Commission?
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to ask Member Isak From to clarify if there were any outstanding questions that were not addressed in my first answer. I tried to listen attentively but did not actually perceive that the Member had any further outstanding questions regarding this.
I have also on countless occasions accounted for various updates on how we stand regarding the electricity support. I can understand that it is not entirely easy to keep up, and it can also become mixed up in debates and interviews when one discusses both a specific electricity support for companies in the form of electricity support to electricity-intensive companies and a general electricity support to companies.
None of these two were in the electricity price compensation from the previous, Social Democratic, government. That is how much the companies meant to the Social Democrats then. Now, when they have ended up in opposition, they seem to mean very much. I note that the Social Democrats, when they themselves had power, zeroed out the compensation to the companies. They did not lift a finger to do anything for the companies affected by the high electricity prices - something that is also largely influenced and driven by decisions that the Social Democrats themselves made regarding the electricity system in Sweden. This has made us much more vulnerable to Russia's war of invasion in Ukraine. Now it is a different tune.
These are, however, the electricity subsidies we are providing regarding the companies. In addition, we have electricity subsidies for households in southwestern Sweden that use gas. These households were not compensated at all through the previous Social Democratic government's electricity price compensation. Then we have a general electricity subsidy in two rounds to households in Sweden. The first round has been paid out now; as of March 7, 98 percent of all eligible people had received part of that subsidy. During the spring, we will return with dates for when the second electricity subsidy round, which will also cover all of Sweden, will reach the households.
During the question period last week, I received questions regarding electricity support, including for companies, and just as I have said at press conferences and in interviews, I have no problem explaining what the arrangement looks like. We discussed support for both households and companies last week, and I have explained this on several occasions. As the Chamber knows, they are at slightly different stages in the process, and the company support has not yet been sent to the commission.
We do, however, have a dialogue, and we have had it in different rounds and in different ways since this became possible and legal with the crisis intervention in the autumn. It may have been mixed up in context, so I have tried to explain as pedagogically as possible where we stand in the different processes. We have reported the electricity support to the electricity-intensive companies as state aid. If I was unclear in my formulation last week, I regret it, but I have been very clear and accounted for this in several rounds.
I am not trying to mislead in any way, but I have tried to provide as much information as possible regarding how the work is being carried out. I naturally welcome a KU report if that is where the Social Democrats have chosen to take it, and in that case, we can address it in due course. I still thought it was worth answering it already now.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker and the Minister for Energy and Business! I do not quite know how I should begin.
Every year and every parliamentary term seems to have its challenges. During the last parliamentary term, we had the pandemic, and then the Committee on Finance had extra meetings almost every week. These were extra meetings in addition to the regular meetings. Decisions were made on over 200 measures, and over 400 billion kronor were disbursed in the form of various supports to individuals and companies to counter the effects of the pandemic.
Since 2022, when we suddenly got a war. That caused electricity prices to very clearly start going up in September 2022. Then we had a change of government, and since then we have had a new government that is to handle new challenges. Right now, the challenges are that individual households and companies have received electricity bills that cause them to practically go bankrupt, end up with the enforcement authority, or have to shut down their operations.
The Minister for Energy and Industry asked me if I had any questions. I said in the introduction that I think all these parts could have been highlighted in the answer. Take, for example, all the companies within the tourism industry that pay their electricity bill via the rent. This concerns bakeries and hotels, i.e., companies that have many employees who risk losing their jobs. How can the government support those companies? That was a question I had, and I do not feel that the answer the Minister for Energy and Industry provides here is sufficient.
As Minister for Enterprise, one cannot simply wish that the rental companies, i.e., the property owners, should repay the electricity support they probably have the right to apply for – it is not clarified whether they have the right to apply because we have not yet received this approval from the Commission. But if that were the case, when the government has submitted the application, the property owners can apply for an electricity support. However, there is still nothing in the response that guarantees that the government ensures that all hospitality companies – all those companies that pay for electricity via the rent – can actually receive a support and receive a relief. There is an opportunity here for the government to direct its agencies and ensure that even this type of company can receive electricity support.
Then new questions arise all the time now that it emerges that electricity support that was supposed to go to private individuals in southern Sweden has gone to agricultural companies - agricultural companies that are in a completely different sector, which is governed by the EU's agricultural policy. Suddenly, perhaps it is an improper state aid. Should they pay this back, or will the farmers in northern Sweden also receive their electricity support via the support that is supposed to go to ordinary households?
The questions are not fewer, but rather they are becoming more numerous.
Aida Birinxhiku (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister repeats that this issue is of the highest priority for the government, but it is difficult to believe when the government has not even made a state aid notification to the EU Commission, when several companies are left without electricity support because they rent their premises and thus lack their own electricity contract, and when it is still unclear when the payments to the companies can begin.
In my home county of Halland alone, the number of bankruptcies has multiplied many times over and the number of warnings has increased enormously. Hallands Nyheter and Hallandsposten report on several companies struggling for their survival and which will soon be forced to close down and lay off all staff. Despite this, they have not received a single krona in electricity support. How many more companies will go bankrupt? How many more employees will lose their jobs? How many more interpellation debates shall we have in this chamber before the companies receive the government's promised electricity support?
I repeated the following question several times in my interpellation debate in January, and now - nearly two months later - I hope that Minister for Energy and Business Ebba Busch can actually give Swedish companies and families a clear answer: When will the government submit the state aid notification to the European Commission?
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! The short answer is: As soon as it is possible. The consultation period expired a few weeks ago, that is to say, quite recently. As soon as we are finished handling the consultation responses – we do, after all, think it is important to listen to the companies and make adjustments where it is possible – we will submit a notification regarding state aid.
We are not standing still during this time, however, but we have given a mandate to Skatteverket to be the paying authority in this. Communication has been issued that by the end of May, the structure will be in place and that there will then be an opportunity for companies to apply for support for this.
I mean that the Social Democrats - in this case Isak From, Madam Speaker - are solely responsible when it comes to how it would be possible to solve the issue regarding the landlords. I truly share the basic view that it is deeply regrettable that not all companies get a share of the electricity support with this arrangement. It just shows how harmful it is to try to patch and repair a system in retrospect. Our assessment has been that it is difficult to find special solutions for everything.
We know that it is a significant number of companies that have their electricity contract with this setup and who are thus affected in such a way that they do not receive a share of this electricity support. It is deeply regrettable. It is therefore that Swedish competitiveness and Swedish entrepreneurship cannot rest on the fact that we, through electricity support and by returning bottleneck revenues during a crisis intervention, shall compensate for a partially dismantled energy system – for which the Social Democrats take no responsibility at all. One can also well stand by the fact that you zeroed out the support to companies in the electricity price compensation that came last time, when you were in power, and that you have not pointed out a single constructive proposal on how you could have addressed the problem.
We have tried and assessed that it has not been feasible. Believe me: I would have wished that it had been feasible, but we have not seen that it could have been. Therefore, we issue a very sharp appeal that the landlords, as far as possible, should help their tenants to be able to take part in the electricity support.
The answer is that there is no quick fix for this. We must build the Swedish energy system strong again. We need to pave the way for new power production in the short and long term. That is the only way we can become less vulnerable, get out of the difficult situation we are in today, obtain enough capacity and obtain enough electricity where it is needed, when it is needed, and at reasonable prices. That is what paves the way for entrepreneurship in Sweden in the long term.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! It is gratifying that the Minister for Energy and Industry wants Social Democratic proposals. Then perhaps one should ensure that the Social Democrats get to take over government power. Then perhaps one can consider whether one should not go into opposition.
One can listen to the companies. One can, for example, listen to Svenskt Näringsliv and Visita, which have submitted a proposal in the current regulation: "Support recipients/Electricity users for business purposes: business operators or legal entities that take electricity directly from a grid company's electricity grid at one or more points of delivery, or via a landlord's point of delivery, for business purposes in Sweden" shall have the opportunity to receive support.
In the same motion, the tourism organization Visita has requested a meeting with the Minister for Energy and Industry to discuss the tourism industry's precarious situation because that specific industry is so bound by often having electricity via the rent.
The simplest question right now is, therefore: Will the Minister for Enterprise meet the industry and the companies and learn how they want to enable this industry to also receive support? It is an answer that is quite easy to give – and quite soon, even. I believe that quite a few would be quite happy.
In northern Sweden, it is other industries and companies that are wondering: When will the government see the whole country? When will Bastuträsk Charkuteri and Landins Mekaniska - or Polarbröd, for that matter - get the opportunity to receive the same support so that they can compete in a common market across all of Sweden?
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Yes, one can mock and ridicule that I, as a minister, am inquiring as to what the Social Democrats' alternative solution is. I mean, however, that one is answerable when one has such a high tone in words but in action, when one had power, gave exactly zero in support to the companies.
It was also the reason why the Swedish people voted for a change of power in the autumn: because this was how the Social Democrats treated Sweden's job creators - zero in compensation for a policy that brought Sweden to this energy-politically vulnerable position, no accountability for the policy that led to the decommissioning of four reactors and the halting of Ringhals 5 and 6, no bridging of the goal conflicts that exist between climate and environment and which have caused Sweden to now have permit processes for wind power lasting between 12 ½ and 17 years, according to the wind power industry itself. I can continue like this area by area.
What we are doing now is moving from words to action. We are also open and honest with the Swedish people that this is a square system, that it is jagged and that people get caught in the middle, but that it is significantly much better than how reality was with the Social Democrats in power.
We are working as quickly as we can with all electricity support. To be precise: the referral period expired on March 6. When we have processed the comments – and there we are now listening to the companies and the industry – we will adjust the proposal further, if needed, and then make a state aid notification. At the same time, we have prepared the entire system to be able to handle this as soon as possible after the Commission has processed it. We also have a close and recurring dialogue with the Commission to enable a handling as fast as it is possible.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.