What we mean?
Energy poverty is a term from social policy and describes the connection between poverty and the cost of energy. On the one hand, it describes rising energy costs as a risk of poverty and, on the other hand, the difficulties of many households in the industrialized countries to pay rising energy costs.
Energy poverty is a serious social problem. A disconnection, the interruption of electricity supply or heat supply, is for the utilities only the Ultima Ratio, but for the affected families with children it is an absolute disaster. But Energy poverty does not start until it comes disconnections.
Why is this a topic?
In a representative survey on income and living conditions (EU-SILC), 8.7 percent of EU citizens surveyed said “they can not heat their homes adequately“ (2016).
In 2016, more than one fifth of the population living in Portugal (22.5 %) and Cyprus (24.3 %) and more than one quarter of the population living in Greece (29.1 %) and Lithuania (29.3 %) was unable to keep their home adequately warm; this share peaked in Bulgaria, at 39.2 %. (Quelle: Eurostat: Living conditions in Europe, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2018: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/9079352/KS-DZ-18-001-EN-N.pdf/884f6fec-2450-430a-b68d-f12c3012f4d0
We call for those concrete steps:
In the Electricity Market Directive, access to energy must be defined as a social fundamental right.
Electricity and heating disconnections must be prohibited in the directive for the single market for electricity.
For all households in Europe, a basic contingent of electricity must be provided free of charge.
On the bill of the energy supplier, the cost of energy supply must be easy to understand and transparent. Energy networks and energy supply should basically be in municipal hands.
Party of the European Left
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1000 Brussels, Belgium
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This Flyer was created in December 2018 from Marika Tändler-Walenta, Press & Communication. Officer of the Party of the European Left.