Energy-intensive companies from Germany are calling for an EU-wide electricity price for industry as a simple instrument to safeguard the sector’s global competitiveness during the continent’s quest for climate neutrality, according to Handelsblatt.

Industry has long argued that current power prices are too high.

“An European industry power price would open the door for the decarbonisation of the EU primary industry and should be an elementary component of an EU industrial strategy,” Rudolf Staudigl, CEO of chemicals maker Wacker Chemie, told business daily Handelsblatt. Wacker Chemie is a global market leader in the energy-intensive production of polycrystalline silicon, a key ingredient for PV modules, and competes with Chinese companies with significantly low er electricity costs, according to the article.

“The German power price is at least twice as high as in western China,” Staudigl said.

Aurubis, Europe’s largest copper producer, backs the idea, according to CLEW. “We need a globally competitive power price. A European industry power price could guarantee this,” said Aurubis CEO, Roland Harings.