/ world today news/ How to help vulnerable households to go more painlessly through the energy crisis? What is the way to deal with high energy prices? The answers to these questions were formulated by the MEP from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Tsvetelina Penkova at the conference “Let’s reduce bills – energy poverty and prices” organized by Sergey Stanishev and the Group of Socialists and Democrats. The event is part of the pan-European campaign “Let’s reduce the bills”.
“Increasing the energy efficiency of the building stock is a long-term measure in the fight against energy poverty and leads to double lower heating bills,” emphasized Tsvetelina Penkova. She specified that the directive on the energy performance of buildings will enter into force in 2024, with priority given to renovations of the 15% of buildings with the lowest energy efficiency in each member country. “It puts a focus on vulnerable households, which will rely on grants, funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plans, cohesion funds and state co-financing. For all other European citizens, we are developing opportunities for additional financial schemes and incentives by involving the financial private sector to provide low-interest loans, the repayment of which does not exceed the current amount of heating costs,” explained the MEP.
The campaign “Let’s reduce the bills” of the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the EP offers concrete solutions with a focus on financial support for European citizens and small and medium-sized enterprises, the need to increase incomes and the serious need for reforms in electricity pricing. These are 15 key propositions, some of which are:
– temporary disconnection between gas and electricity prices to relieve electricity bills immediately
– increase in income and decent minimum wages
– ensuring the right to a warm home and prohibiting the exclusion of vulnerable consumers from the gas and electricity grid.
“To sustainably deal with high prices and guarantee energy security, we must think long-term, relying not only on diversification, but also on the development of our own resources within the EU – investments in RES and nuclear energy,” concluded MEP Tsvetelina Penkova.
The conference, on the initiative of Sergey Stanishev, was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister for the Management of European Funds Atanas Pekanov, the Minister of Agriculture Yavor Gechev, the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria Diana Kovacheva, the Chairman of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation Ivan Ivanov, Dimitar Ganev from “Trend”, experts, representatives of local authorities and politicians.
You can learn more about the campaign here: Bring the Bills Down | Socialists & Democrats (socialistsanddemocrats.eu)
To contact the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the EP:
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