RWE’s chief executive has complained that making power companies pay for the carbon dioxide that they emit would mark “the end of fair competition in the energy sector in Europe”.

Juergen Grossmann, head of Germany’s second biggest utility, told the Financial Times that its rival EDF, the French state-controlled nuclear group, could be handed a €40bn ($51bn) gift this week if the European Union presses ahead with plans for full auctioning of carbon permits for utilities.