Thirty percent of Bulgarians, or 1.8 million people fall into the category of energy-poor households with no access to basic energy services for adequate heating, cooling, lighting and energy for household appliances, BNR’s Tsvetelina Stoyanova reports. Another 365,000 are vulnerable customers, and around 21% are unable to keep their homes sufficiently warm. According to an Economic and Social Council report, the government is lagging behind in the introduction of mechanisms for evaluating, identifying and monitoring energy-poor households in this country.

In July last year, the average monthly price of electric energy in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece was over 110% higher than in central European countries such as Germany, Austria and Czechia, the document reads and goes on: “As a result, Bulgarian businesses and the Bulgarian state, though the compensations it provides, pays an exorbitant price for electric energy and this has a highly unfavourable effect on economic competitiveness and the standard of living.”

Edited by Diana Tsankova
Translated and posted by Milena Daynova
Photo: BGNES