(Bloomberg) -- The Netherlands is seeking ways to hasten the sale of Dutch utility TenneT Holding BV’s German power grid as talks to sell the unit to the government in Berlin drag on.

“The time is approaching for us to actively explore alternative routes,” Dutch Finance Minister Steven van Weyenberg said in a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. 

As recently as this month, the Netherlands was seen to be closing in on a deal with Germany likely to be worth about €22 billion ($23.8 billion). The discussions have been complicated by a German court ruling last year on budget spending that forced the government to reassess the cost of its efforts to consolidate the country’s power grids and bolster energy security. 

“You need two parties to agree,” Van Weyenberg said. “We have of course seen that there are complexities in the budget process on the German side.” 

Possible alternatives include a partial sale to a private party, or an investment from the Dutch Treasury in Germany’s power infrastructure, he said. The primary objective remains the sale of state-owned TenneT’s German network to Germany, Van Weyenberg said.

The Dutch government wants to use part of the proceeds from the sale to upgrade the Netherlands’ overloaded power grid, which has posed risks to the growth of some of its biggest companies, including ASML Holding NV.  

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