The European Commission published today its long-awaited Recommendations on Energy Poverty.
The recommendations are joined by an Annex giving guidance that Members States can use to analyse their own levels of energy poverty. The indicators presented in the document are either related to income, energy prices, expenditure on energy or are based on self-assessment or indirect factors such as arrears or housing quality.
The partners in STEP countries are looking forward to continue working at national level to help consumers tackle energy poverty through advice on energy efficiency and guidance to available support schemes. They will also approach their national authorities working on energy poverty assessment to present their best practices in the field and offer support in the implementation of the recent guidelines.
Even if a European definition of energy poverty is not possible at the moment due to the many differences between countries, we welcome and support national-level definitions as a starting point, based on the new guidelines. Better understanding of energy poverty at the national level will allow STEP to be even better at reaching out to its target audience, consumers at risk or facing energy poverty.
