Facts: Europe’s efforts to protect households from rising energy costs – Reuters

A photo of a gas stove on a stove in a private house in Bordeaux, southwest France, December 13, 2012. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) – Energy prices for millions of British homes are set to rise from April after Britain’s regulator Ofgem said on Thursday it would raise its ceiling on the most widely used tariffs by 54 percent due to record global gas prices. . Read more

The rise comes amid record global gas prices that have forced governments across Europe to pour billions of euros into consumer protection measures.

Here are some of the actions announced so far:

Belgium

Belgium said earlier this month that it would cut value-added tax on electricity as part of a package to protect consumers from rising energy prices. Read more

Britain

Britain has a cap on the price of the most-used home energy contracts, but this will rise by 54% from April 1st.

To limit the impact, the government on Thursday launched a package of measures including a 200-pound ($271.10) rebate on electricity bills for all households over five years, and a 150-pound rebate on council tax bills for about 80% of households in England. Read more

Bulgaria

Bulgaria has frozen regulated electricity and heating prices until the end of March to protect families. Read more

Czech Republic

The Czech lower house of parliament has approved a government bill easing the conditions for housing-related social benefits, which would help those hardest hit by rising energy prices.

European Commission

EU countries are largely responsible for their own national energy policies, and EU rules allow them to take emergency measures to protect consumers from rising costs.

The European Commission in October published a “toolbox” of measures that EU members can use without violating competition rules, including subsidies to help poor families, financing renovations that reduce energy use or exempting vulnerable families from higher energy taxes. Read more

France

France has committed to cap an increase in regulated electricity costs by 4%. To help do this, the government has ordered EDF, which is 80% state-owned, to sell more cheap nuclear power to competitors. Read more

Germany

The German government said that this year it may eliminate additional charges on electricity bills used to support renewable energy, to ease the pressure caused by rising energy costs on millions of households. Read more

Greece

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece has announced a 2% increase in the minimum wage and will cut property tax rates by another 13% to help families struggling with rising inflation and rising energy costs.

Italia

The Italian government has spent more than 8 billion euros since July to curb rising retail energy bills. Read more.

And last month it announced another 1.7 billion euro package designed to curb rising energy bills and help companies deal with the latest wave of coronavirus infections.

Holland

The Netherlands cut energy taxes on 8 million households.

Norway

Norway subsidized household electricity bills in December, paying 55% of the portion of electricity bills above a certain rate, which rose to 80% in the January-March period. Read more

Poland

Poland has announced tax cuts on energy, gasoline and basic foodstuffs, as well as cash assistance to families. Read more

Spain

Spain cut many taxes in an effort to lower consumer bills, and it was originally planning to keep the rates low until the end of the year, but decided in December to keep them low until May 2022. Read more

It also capped gas price increases under regulated tariffs, but the government eventually backed away from moves to recoup around 2.6 billion euros in profits from energy companies that were originally deemed unfairly made during the energy price crisis.

Sweden

Sweden will compensate the families hardest hit by higher electricity prices, with the government allocating six billion Swedish kronor ($661 million) for these measures. Read more

(1 dollar = 0.8782 euros)

(1 dollar = 9.0801 Swedish krona)

(dollar = 0.7377 pounds)

Reporting by Susanna Tweedall, Isla Penny, Stephen Geokes, Kate Abnett, Vera Eckert, Robert Mueller, Benjamin Mallet, Stein Jacobsen, Nora Polley, Angeliki Kotanto, Tsulova Tsvetelia, Anna Cooper; Editing by Alexander Smith

Our criteria: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.