By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) -European governments, some facing elections this year, have ploughed tens of billions of euros into measures designed to shield households from record high energy prices.
Below outlines some of the policies Britain and European member states have announced (in alphabetical order):
BRITAIN
Britain has a price cap on the most widely used household energy contracts but this is expected to rise by some 50% in April.
To limit the impact the government has announced a package of measures, including a 200 pounds ($263) discount on electricity bills for all households to be repaid over five years, and a 150 pound rebate on council tax bills for around 80% of households in England.
Energy poverty campaigners said with a further price cap rise expected in October the measures do not go far enough. They are calling on the government to do more in this week’s spring financial statement such as removing VAT – value added tax – from energy bills.
BULGARIA
Bulgaria has frozen regulated electricity and heating prices until the end of March to shield households.
DENMARK
Danish lawmakers have agreed a so-called “heat check”, which means subsidies worth 2 billion Danish crowns ($299 million) will be paid to some 419,000 of the hardest-hit households.
EUROPEAN COMMISION
European Union countries are largely responsible for their national energy policies, and EU rules allow them to take emergency measures to protect consumers from higher costs.
The European Commission in October published a “toolbox” of measures EU members can use without breaching competition rules, including subsidies to help poorer households, funding for renovations that reduce energy use or exempting vulnerable households from higher energy taxes.
European leaders, meeting at an EU summit this week, are expected to discuss potential extra EU-wide measures, such as electricity or gas price caps being proposed by some countries.
FRANCE
France has committed to capping an increase on regulated electricity costs at 4%. To help do this the government has ordered utility EDF, which is 80% state owned, to sell more cheap nuclear power to rivals.
New measures announced since the Ukraine crisis – such as helping companies with the cost of higher gas and power bills – bringing the total cost of the government package to 25-26 billion euros ($28 billion) Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
GERMANY
The government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has approved tax relief measures totalling 4.5 billion euros this year, including an allowance for commuters, to help households with exploding energy prices.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner also wants to introduce a temporary rebate for petrol and diesel that would amount to 6.6 billion euros over three months. His plan is facing resistance from the environmentalist Greens reluctant to back state subsidies for fossil fuels.
GREECE
Greece has spent some 2.5 billion euros in power and gas bill subsidies since September and detailed additional aid of 1.1 billion euros last week, which includes a fuel rebate for low-income households.
ITALY
Italy last week approved a new package to help consumers and firms cope with surging energy costs.
The package, worth 4.4-billion euro, is the latest step to curb energy and fuel prices and comes on top of some 16 billion euros budgeted since last July to try and soften electricity and gas bills for firms and households.
NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands has cut energy taxes for its 8 million households.
NORWAY
Norway has been subsidising household electricity bills since December and currently covers 80% of the portion of power bills above a certain rate. Earlier in March, the minority government proposed to extend the scheme by one year to March 2023.
POLAND
Poland has announced tax cuts on energy, petrol and basic food items, as well as cash handouts for households. It has also extended regulated gas prices for households and institutions like schools and hospitals until 2027.
SPAIN
Spain cut several taxes to reduce consumer bills, originally planning to maintain the lower rates until the end of last year, but has since decided to keep them lower until end-June 2022.
Spain announced 16 billion euros ($17.5 billion) in direct aid and soft loans to help companies and households weather sky-high energy prices that are pushing up inflation and stoking social discontent.
SWEDEN
Sweden will compensate households worst hit by the surge in electricity prices, with the government setting aside 6 billion Swedish crowns ($636 million) for the measures.
($1 = 0.7607 pounds)
($1 = 9.4330 Swedish crowns)
($1 = 0.9046 euros)
($1 = 6.6792 Danish crowns)
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale, Isla Binnie, Stephen Jewkes, Kate Abnett, Joseph Nasr, Robert Muller, Benjamin Mallet, Stine Jacobsen, Nora Buli, Angeliki Koutantou, Tsolova Tsvetelia, Anna Koper, Alan Charlish; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
