BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany and other European coal-mining countries looked set for a victory over environmentalists on Wednesday by securing an extension of coal subsidies until 2018.
The European Commission, the EU's executive, had proposed in July that the coal mining industry should only get four more years of state aid before subsidies are phased out in 2014 -- the sixth such extension of state aid since 1965.
But with thousands of jobs on the line, Germany led other coal-mining countries such as Spain in pushing hard to extend subsidies to 2018, to fit around Berlin's own national laws. That position looks to have won the day.
"The Commission has agreed to reduce the coal subsidies over the next eight years in a relatively linear way," Europe's energy commissioner, Germany's Guenther Oettinger, said after convincing his colleagues to extend the subsidies.
Green politicians oppose the move, saying taxpayers' money should not be wasted on supporting an uncompetitive and polluting industry at a time when the European Union should be focusing on creating new jobs in a green economy.
The outcome now hinges on a meeting of all 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels later on Wednesday, with Sweden seen as the last country opposing Germany's will.
The decision would then be rubber-stamped at a meeting of ministers on Friday.
(Reporting by Pete Harrison; editing by Keiron Henderson)