Natural gas: Subsidies to 700,000 households

The Greek government staff has put on the table the issue of financial support for households using natural gas to cope with the difficult winter ahead. This was stated by Energy Minister, Mr Kostas Skrekas, noting that “the Prime Minister’s mandate is to examine every single scenario to support households, because we cannot leave our ctizens unable to heat their homes in the heart of winter”.

The gas subsidy is likely to consist of a mix of policies as it did last winter. “Last year we supported households with subsidies and increases in the heating allowance, but also through gas bills subsidies,” the Minister said, adding that everything will be decided after consultations with the economic staff and after taking into account the needs of the most vulnerable groups. However, the Greek government is expected to provide electricity subsidies in the coming months, as well.

September subsidy already reaches 1.2 billion euros and as the Energy Minister said the government has committed to recover 80% to 90% of the increase in electricity to households and businesses. More specifically, for the month of September the government will absorb 94% of the increase in electricity for households. “The government has decided to provide, for as long as necessary, support against the explosive increase in energy prices for all and without income criteria,” he added.

In fact, he said that already in the EU the partners are slowly aligning themselves with the proposal of Mr Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had proposed to establish a cap on natural gas on international exchanges, and on September 7 at the Directorate General of Energy the Greek representative will present the country’s position on limiting the price of natural gas and establishing a cap.

14 billion euros

In total, gas and electricity subsidies are estimated to reach 14 billion euros for the whole of 2022, with the bulk of this coming from the Energy Transition Fund, at a time when gas prices are expected to remain high in 2023.

The energy issue is a burning issue for the European market, with governments frantically looking for measures to cope and ways to ensure their energy sufficiency.

Yesterday, the German Finance Minister, Mr Christian Lindner, said that his country’s government must tackle soaring electricity prices “as a matter of urgency”, noting that the electricity market should be overhauled so that prices are no longer linked to increasingly expensive gas.

Meanwhile, the German Foreign Minister, Ms Annalena Berbock, characterized as a “madness” any try to move away from the planned abandonment of nuclear power and opposed the possible extension of the operation of Germany’s three nuclear power plants, which are scheduled to be permanently shut down at the end of the year.

Europe is “alert”

An emergency meeting of energy ministers to discuss specific emergency measures to deal with the energy situation is being convened by the Czech Republic, which holds the presidency of the European Union for the current six months.

“We are in an energy war with Russia and this is hurting the whole EU,” said Czech Industry and Trade Minister, Mr Jozef Sikela.