Brussels calls for end to handouts
A return to fiscal discipline in 2024, with no margin for extraordinary benefits, as well as a gradual abolition of support measures against energy hikes, is the European Commission’s fiscal guidance to be delivered to EU finance ministers on Monday and Tuesday.
The Greek government has promised that the current electricity tariff support system will continue until the end of June and hopes that by then energy prices will be so low that the budget will no longer need to contribute to containing them. Besides, the budget contribution has already been reduced to almost zero since February as prices have fallen and the Energy Transition Fund covers most of the subsidy.
However, the Commission’s intervention, with its announcement of the “fiscal guidance for 2024,” formalizes the end of the support measures and leaves no room for their extension, except for vulnerable people if prices rise again.
The landing may be especially hard for Greece, since it was the country with the third highest fiscal expenditure for support measures in 2022, after Bulgaria and Italy, reaching approximately 2.25% of GDP, against an average in the European Union of 1.2% of GDP.
