4 questions for... Andrea Thoma-Böck

Ms. Thoma-Böck, you drew attention to the precarious situation regarding energy costs and bottlenecks in September with the Bild article "German companies facing collapse" and letters to Economics Minister Habeck. How did you become the industry's figurehead?

Thoma Metallveredlung was one of the first in the industry to be affected because our electricity contract expired. As I am also the regional chairman of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and was confronted with the concerns of many companies whose energy contracts had been terminated or whose energy suppliers were insolvent, I started talks with politicians at the Chamber in Augsburg at an early stage. Prices were increasingly slipping and many companies had to cover their energy needs overnight on the spot market. The situation escalated further with the war in Ukraine. To make matters worse, the industry was threatened with the gas levy. That's how I came to say something in the BamS. It was about the shortage of hydrochloric acid. We could no longer get hydrochloric acid or had to accept prices that had risen from 24 cents to 4 euros in some cases. I said that Germany was doing away with itself, because the shortage of hydrochloric acid extends far beyond the industry. Municipalities need hydrochloric acid for wastewater treatment - in some federal states, limits were even raised because they could no longer be met. Power plants also need many tons of hydrochloric acid every day, otherwise they and entire cities would grind to a halt. And that's when I said: people wake up, where is this going? That was an important building block in overturning the gas levy. Then came the unfortunately poorly designed energy price subsidies. Entrepreneurs have to articulate their concerns, otherwise nothing will change.

The association has also mobilized against the gas levy and the merit order principle ...

That's right and important, but from the point of view of members of the Bundestag, nothing beats a business voice. Business comes from business and not from omission. Entrepreneurs used to be entrepreneurs and let politics be politics, but when the framework conditions slip away like this, an entrepreneur can no longer remain silent. I'll say it again, the association is one thing, but you can't spare the companies! The industry must be mobilized and everyone must say something.

What else worries you in the current economic situation?

First of all, the security of supply in our industry is dependent on base-load electricity. But the REACh chemicals regulation and the Green Deal are also worrying. I consider a blanket ban on all substances and mixtures, only to allow them individually if they are "essential for the common good", to be presumptuous and disproportionate. The new Green Deal bureaucracy monster and the "essential use" principle threaten the industry with a tsunami and a bureaucratic overload of unprecedented proportions. This must be averted. The great importance of our industry for many supply chains in Europe must be emphasized. No surface coating in Europe - no production of metal parts of any kind in Europe. But then, as a consequence, no successful energy transition, no armaments, no pipelines, no repair of corroded nuclear power plants in France. Without electroplating, the lights will go out in Europe.

The situation is far from being defused at the moment. How do you see it and what are you calling for?

There is a great danger of deindustrialization. Even the trade unions are currently fearing that energy-intensive companies will go under and countless jobs will be lost. We urgently need an internationally competitive industrial electricity price and a moratorium on charges in Germany and the EU.