Energy crisis: Austria decides to put a brake on electricity prices | tagesschau.de
Status: 07.09.2022 7:35 p.m
Austria wants to relieve private households of their electricity costs by means of a price brake – the savings should be around 500 euros per year on average. The government in Vienna expects costs of more than three billion euros.
The Austrian government has announced a price cap for electricity. In this way, the costs for an average three-person household should fall by around 500 euros per year, said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer. The measure, which still has to be passed in Parliament, is scheduled to come into force in December and apply until the end of June 2024. The government will provide three to four billion euros for financing.
Unbureaucratic help
Nobody in Austria should not be able to afford their basic electricity needs, said the Austrian Chancellor in Vienna. It is about fast and unbureaucratic help for which no application has to be made. The net electricity price is to be subsidized by up to 30 cents from 40 cents per kilowatt hour – up to an annual consumption of 2900 kilowatt hours. This consumption corresponds to about 80 percent of the annual requirement of an average household. The government also planned further electricity price discounts for larger families and poorer people.
Like other European countries, Austria is struggling with an energy crisis and rising prices. The background is the Russian attack on Ukraine and a throttling of natural gas supplies from Russia to Europe. At EU level, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke out in favor of a price cap for Russian natural gas. Further measures to defuse the energy crisis must be added, she said.