This is how European governments are taking action against rising bill prices
Like Italy, other European countries are also rushing to help families and businesses against the increase in energy bills. The Italian government has allocated so far € 8.5 billion to mitigate the rises (1.2 billion in July, 3.5 in October and 3.8 in the budget law). To this sum must be added the billion for families in difficulty. The Italian government is also studying further interventions that should take the form of a solidarity contribution from the energy companies.
Let’s see what the main European countries have done.
Germany
Germany as of January 1st has the contribution was cut by 42.7% that consumers pay to support renewable energies (in Italy included in the system charges) to help families cope with the surge in energy prices. The government will help finance the cut with 3.25 billion euros of revenue collected from the carbon tax.
The tax, which was reduced by 3.9% last year to help the economy recover from the coronavirus crisis, is levied under the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) and paid to wind farm manufacturers and solar. The EEG tariff makes up one fifth of a consumer’s energy bill. The tax (EEG) is thus reduced from 6.5 to 3.72 cents on the wholesale price per kilowatt hour of electricity.
On January 9, the new ruling coalition announced targeted measures to help the most vulnerable families who should fully cover their heating bills. Electricity prices for German households are the highest in the European Union.
Spain
To help consumers, the Spanish government will extend a tax reduction on electricity bills until May 1, 2022. Last June, Spain reduced the VAT on electricity bills from 21% to 10% and suspended the 7% tax on the value of electricity production, which utilities transfer to retail prices.