The concept of energy poverty, as well the tools and methods for measuring it, are very diverse across different countries. However, it is an issue that affects the whole European Union, where, in 2018, over 33 million households were not able to pay for utility bills (including electricity), and were at risk of being without energy supply, and over 37 million households experienced cold homes.

In this context, energy subsidies for low-income households have been included in many social policies across Europe, but mostly in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where the political, social and economic scenarios charge the region with specific challenges, such as higher rates of energy poverty, higher numbers of homeownership rate in multi-family apartment buildings, and worse energy efficiency measurements in building stocks.

ComAct aims to make energy-efficient improvements in multi-family apartment buildings in the Central and Eastern European regions affordable and manageable for energy-poor communities. ComAct has taken a deep dive into five countries – Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Ukraine – to look at their energy poverty rates, how the energy-poor are identified, and what programmes are in place to support them.

The Fit for 55 package and 2021 recast EPBD proposal stress the importance of energy poverty alleviation. Despite welcoming the increasing attention of the Commission for energy poverty, critics point at the need for a more comprehensive and tailored coverage of energy poverty in EU policy.

The roundtable will focus on how the EPBD can better reflect the multi-faceted nature of energy poverty and ensure effective energy poverty alleviation in MFAB in the CEE region and scale-up renovation of multi-apartment buildings. The EU policymakers and relevant actors with knowledge and connections to CEE countries are invited to attend and contribute.