Greek Environment Min: We should create a European household support fund – Price increases in energy market

The Greek Minister of Environment and Energy, Mr. Kostas Skrekas, talked to Mega channel about the Greek proposal to the Council of Europe for the creation of a central European mechanism that will give EU members access to financial sources to support households and businesses.

“Due to the extraordinary circumstances we are currently experiencing, there have been historical price increases in energy, gas and oil. Τhese increases started in September, as a consequence of the pandemic, and, now, they continue and they are fed back due to the war” Mr. Skrekas added.

“We continue to subsidize household and business bills and consumers. In March, companies invoice at the average price of the previous month. We have slightly enlarged the amount of energy subsidised. However, a country cannot cope with the explosive increase in energy prices on its own,” he added.

The proposal of Greece to the Council of Europe

“The Prime Minister highlighted to the Council of Europe the need for the creation of a central European mechanism that would give EU members access to financial sources so as to support households and businesses. We need to do this now. Greece gives 300-400 million euros in subsidies every month, this is more than 4 billion on an annual basis, and people still can’t afford it alone”, Mr.Skrekas said regarding the need to support households.

“We subsidize the first 300 kilowatts, this corresponds to the consumption of 7 out of 10 households, so 7 out of 10 households have consumption of up to 1200 kilowatts every 4 months. After these subsidies, households that paid around 650 euros, now pay 300-450 euros. Noone can be satisfied, because the increase is about 70 euros every 4 months. Social tariff is also applied to households of few square meters that use electricity, but Europe should support further”, Mr. Skrekas commented.

“According to data of PPC, where we have access, there have been no delays in payments to households, but the problem is with the businesses that have been hit the hardest lately. We subsidize at 65 euros per megawatt hour. There is a war going on and noone knows what’s next. Our first concern is to ensure energy security and the adequancy of supplies, and, then, we need to ensure that energy is affordable. We have investigated different scenarios for the country’s energy cut-off from Russia,” the Greek Minister of Energy, Mr. Skrekas, concluded.