Romania will receive six billion euros from the EU, to reduce energy poverty
Romania will receive six billion euros from the financing package of the Social Fund for Climate of the European Parliament, writes antena3.ro.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the Social Fund for Climate is Romania, which will receive 9.25% of the financing package worth 65 billion euros. This means that our country will receive six billion euros, money that will be given to support vulnerable groups, Romanians in energy or transport poverty.
The financing package is available for the period 2026-2032 and aims to mitigate the potential negative effects on households generated by the introduction of the ETS 2 carbon tax mechanism.
The new mechanism for charging fossil fuels used for heating homes and in road transport will be applied in the EU from 2027, notes Euractiv.
A report by the Center for the Study of Democracy shows that the member states of Central and Eastern Europe need special attention in the context of the application of the mentioned mechanism and the Social Fund for Climate.
The reason would be that these countries have lower incomes than the EU average, a large number of old and energy-inefficient buildings and are dependent on polluting fuels for heating.
The same document shows that in the mentioned regions, a large part of the population is still in rural areas, in thermally inefficient houses, without the financial resources to insulate them and trapped in the use of inefficient heating fuels. All this leads to high levels of energy poverty.
“In Romania, households that use gas-based devices for home heating and are already energy poor will be the most vulnerable to ETS 2. But other types of households will also be indirectly impacted by the ETS 2 system.
Therefore, a high stake is to develop programs adapted to the energy needs of low- and middle-income households that are vulnerable to any price increases. These households are already in precariousness or at high risk of energy poverty if they do not benefit from long-term interventions.
One of the most important tasks for the authorities in the coming period is to identify and profile the households that will be most affected”, said Andreea Vornicu, researcher at the Center for the Study of Democracy and co-author of the study.
In order to access the money available through the Social Climate Fund, the beneficiary states must develop, by mid-2025, clear and comprehensive action plans that identify households vulnerable to rising energy bills, as well as vulnerable transport users.
