BERLIN — Germany's governing coalition agreed to subsidize energy prices for heavy industry over the next three years as it tries to breathe new life into a stubbornly slow economy that is weighing on Europe's performance.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he and other coalition leaders agreed Thursday evening to introduce an electricity price of about 5 euro cents (6 U.S. cents) per kilowatt hour starting Jan. 1, through 2028, to “support companies that use a lot of electricity and face international competition.”

Talks on the plan with the European Union's executive commission are near-complete and “we assume we will get permission for this," Merz said.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, has shrunk for the past two years and has not seen significant growth for much longer. The conserv

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