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Germany's neighbours demand year-end halt to gas levy

Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have actually urged Germany to legislate this month to waive a pricey gas levy for neighbouring countries, as the collapse of Berlin's coalition federal government risks delaying the law, a document seen showed.

After problems from central European nations, Germany agreed in May to scrap the tariff it charges neighbouring nations to buy gas from its reserves. Berlin introduced the step to cover the high costs of changing Russian gas after Moscow lowered shipments in 2022.

However the collapse of Germany's coalition government has postponed the death of a draft law that would restrict the tariff to apply to German clients only.

In a joint paper, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia kept in mind these hold-ups, and stated the scheduled expiration of a Russian offer to supply gas to Europe through Ukraine at the end of the year had made it more immediate that the German levy is ditched.

It is vital to eliminate all the barriers standing in the way of our diversification efforts, the paper stated, describing the levy as an artificial increase in prices that was preventing the countries' efforts to give up Russian gas.

We when again appeal to Germany to make sure the earliest possible adoption of the modification ... to eliminate the application of the gas storage neutrality charge at the borders with neighbouring countries since 1 January, it stated.

The paper was circulated amongst EU countries, whose energy ministers will talk about the levy at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Central European countries are worried about energy security and costs this winter. In recent weeks, winter and lower renewables generation pushed European gas rates to a. 12-month high.

German system operator Trading Hub Europe has stated the. tariff will rise by a fifth next year, on the presumption that. the levy is restricted to German clients just.

(source: Reuters)