EU wants to dispense with German black coal

The EU Commission wants to close unprofitable black coal mines in Gemany by October 2014, four years ahead of the German government's schedule. The daily Financial Times Deutschland welcomes the proposal: "Even when it was resolved, the decision to end coal mining by 2018 - there have long been no more subsidies for brown coal - testified to an unnecessary delay. The only explanation was the desire to ease the social and financial consequences for coal miners, their families and regions. This target still holds today, but as early as 2007 it was clear that using tax money to prolong these jobs for four more years wouldn't make the slightest difference to their survival chances. In a year when the state faces a record deficit and balancing the budget only seems possible with the utmost effort, Germany's liberal-conservative coalition must now reexamine all existing subsidies."

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