Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche refutes concerns that eastern Germany could be systematically disadvantaged in the construction of new gas-fired power plants. "The fear is unfounded," said the CDU politician during a visit to the eastern German coal-mining region of Lusatia. "We need power plants everywhere in Germany." Lusatia will also be part of this.
The background to this is the so-called southern bonus: The federal government is planning to give preference to southern Germany when building new gas-fired power plants. This had triggered criticism in Saxony. Reiche said that the EU Commission was "very, very close" to getting more power plant capacity approved. "So we will have several waves of tenders," she added.
