The criteria will be awarded the electricity subsidy

By Harry Floudopoulos

The horizontal subsidy for electricity bills is valid from last September and will continue until December, but not necessarily from the new year. After all, the continuation of the subsidy to all consumers, as the EU has already pointed out. to the Greek Government, is tantamount to price-fixing intervention, which is contrary to competition law and can therefore only be accepted in exceptional cases and for a limited period of time.

In this context, the government is considering the introduction of criteria, based on which the subsidy will be awarded, most likely from the new year. In fact, in the bill of the Ministry of Health, which is being discussed in the parliament, an amendment of the ministers of environment and energy and finance was submitted, which prepares the ground for the change. As stated in the amendment “By joint decision of the Ministers of Environment and Energy and Finance, the eligible consumers are determined, taking into account economic and social criteria, customer categories, type of supply tariffs, the amount of subsidy in euros per megawatt hour, procedure, method and the time of its issuance, the time of clearance, the period of consumption, consumption ceilings and thresholds, subsidy ceilings per enterprise, the state aid cumulation control procedure and the related conditions, the recovery procedure if required, the responsible for the above Bodies, as well as any other issue related to the granting of the grant “.

As described in the amendment, the criteria on the basis of which the subsidy for electricity bills is to be granted will be economic and social, while the amount of consumption will also be taken into account. The most likely scenario, predicts that about 50% of consumers will be subsidized, the most vulnerable, probably with a larger amount, in order to cover the increase in electricity prices. However, there are suggestions for expanding the criteria, so that about 75 to 80% of consumers are covered, but with a smaller amount of subsidy.

In any case, as everything shows, the energy crisis will continue in the new year and therefore there will be a need to support mainly the most vulnerable households in order to cope with the increased costs.