§ 40 EEG-Act 2012 limits the amount of the surcharge that can be passed on by electricity suppliers to EIUs: upon request, the Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle (‘BAFA’), a public authority, will issue an administrative act that prohibits the electricity supplier from passing on the totality of the EEG-surcharge to an end-user when the end-user is a manufacturing undertaking with high electricity consumption (9).

In particular, the complaint asserted that electricity rates were set differently in different provinces and also that preferential rates were used as an industrial policy tool to encourage high added-value steel products and discourage outdated production capacities.

However, as a recent OECD[8] study highlights, high value-added steel products still account for a limited share of steel demand with competition being intense in this segment.

8. Considers regrettable, however, the limited scope of intervention of the High Level Group on Steel, both in the consultation process and in terms of concrete results; considers it essential for regional and local authorities and trade unions representing the areas in which steel plants are located to be closely involved, facilitating and encouraging the participation of those European regions in which the steel companies are based in the work of the High Level Group on Steel, so as to promote cooperation and exchanges of information and best practice among major stakeholders in the Member States; requires greater efficiency and demo ...[+++]nstrable results from this high-level group;