FEANTSA Response to the AccelerateEU Toolbox – Affordable and Secure Energy through Accelerated Action
We welcome the recognition of the social impacts of the energy crisis and the acknowledgement that fossil fuels, particularly gas and oil, continue to dominate heating. This exposes households to global price volatility and underlines the need for timely and targeted measures to protect the most vulnerable consumers.
While the Toolbox recognises vulnerable consumers in the section on “rapid benefits,” the structural sections(particularly Section 3.1 on “clean energy and electrification” and Section 3.3 on “boosting investment”) do not set out concrete, actionable steps to ensure that these households benefit from electrification, renewable energy, and increased funding.
As a result, the Toolbox falls short of its stated ambition to link temporary income support to long-term solutions and to ensure that the benefits of decarbonisation are available for all. Without targeted support, vulnerable households will remain unable to decarbonise and will continue to face disproportionate exposure to future energy crises, while benefits will arrive to more affluent segments of the society, further exacerbating existing inequalities.