Europe’s medium-sized industry needs reliable planning from the EU on how gas will be distributed in the event of a real shortage. What is needed is a uniform supply to all industrial consumers. The German government must amend the Workplace Ordinance in a timely manner so that companies can make their contribution to containing the energy crisis.

Frankfurt, 20/07/2022 – The EU wants to define the priority sectors to be supplied in the event of a European gas emergency. VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann comments on this and the effects on the workplace:

“Particularly the medium-sized industry in Europe needs reliable guidelines from the EU on how gas will be distributed in the event of a real shortage. As long as the German and other European institutions have no knowledge of the effects of selective cuts, we are in favor of an equal supply to all industrial consumers. This is the only way to preserve, albeit with great difficulty, value chains in the event of a crisis.  It is also important to debate the absolute priority of private households in such a situation.

In principle, the EU Commission says many correct things in its communication on gas emergency preparedness. However, its consideration of the industrial consumers to be supplied preferentially does not provide any new impetus: there is still too little data on supply chains and networks and the necessary upstream products. Flexible fuel switching measures are important to keep Europe’s industry running in the coming winter. It is even more important that measures to decarbonize the economy and society are not abandoned in the process.

Medium-sized industry in Europe in particular needs reliable guidelines from the EU on how gas will be distributed in the event of a real shortage.

Thilo Brodtmann, Executive Director of VDMA

The German government should in any case implement the Brussels recommendations on saving energy at the workplace before the heating season arrives. After all, companies need planning and legal certainty in good time. We therefore call on policymakers to amend the Workplace Ordinance in good time so that companies can make an appropriate contribution to containing the energy crisis. It goes without saying that the health of employees must be at the forefront of all measures.”

The VDMA represents more than 3,400 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and medium-sized businesses. The companies employ around four million people in Europe, more than one million of them in Germany alone. Mechanical and plant engineering represents a European sales volume of around 800 billion euros. In the manufacturing sector as a whole, it contributes the highest share of European gross domestic product with value added of around 270 billion euros.