EPOV Annual Report: Addressing Energy Poverty in the European Union: State of Play and Action

The EPOV annual report introduces the concept of energy poverty, before outlining what EPOV is, its tasks and work packages, governance structures, activities to date, and forthcoming future activities. Following that, it reports on the prevalence of energy poverty in the EU using data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, and Household Budget Surveys, with a description of the methodology used by EPOV. Finally, the report looks at measures to tackle energy poverty, both in terms of EU legislative requirements and national policy definitions of energy poverty and vulnerable consumers, as well as practical schemes to assist households. We find variations in the approaches taken by Member States, with a combination of social and energy policies, including social tariffs, subsidies for heating, and targeted energy efficiency interventions. This suggests significant learning opportunities exist for countries to transfer aspects of different policy frameworks to complement their existing work, or, indeed as part of new action to tackle energy poverty.