Poor country, highest prices. This is what Romania looks like, according to the latest Eurostat data on electricity and natural gas prices. According to the volume of electricity consumed by household consumers, Romania even made it to the top three in the EU, after such countries as the Netherlands and Belgium. Romania is immediately followed by Germany. In terms of gas consumption by households, we are still somewhere at the top of the hierarchy, in 6th place after the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland, and in 2nd place for the highest price. It seems that the measures to limit only unreasonably high prices in Romania.

We find ourselves in this situation after some exaggerated price growth in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year, in which Romania outperformed the vast majority of EU countries.

Could prices be lower if the cap were lifted?

Figures presented by Eurostat show that Romania, one of the lowest-income countries in the EU, has some of the highest energy prices and the most serious price increases. And this despite measures to limit/compensate prices for electricity and natural gas.

In addition, there are questions about the effectiveness of the cap, given that energy and gas prices on the stock market have fallen sharply over the past year. For example, gas prices are almost 90% below their 2022 peak. And electricity prices are three times lower.

The government does not want to consider removing the cap, even if there is a suspicion that the caps set by GEO are higher than if they were formed in the free market. One of the reasons may be the benefits for the budget from unnecessarily high bills. High prices also mean corresponding profits for energy companies. We will remind you that the Romanian state is a shareholder of the largest energy companies and can earn billions of lei only from dividends.

Eurostat states that the tax-free price of electricity and natural gas is falling, and EU countries are partially canceling support measures and subsidies that have been applied until now. Less than Romania.

On the 2nd place for the highest gas prices

In the first half of 2023, average prices for electricity consumed by EU households increased, compared to the same period in 2022, from €25.3/100 kWh to €28.9/100 kWh. Average gas prices also increased from €8.6/100 kWh to €11.9/100 kWh.

In the power industry, a huge growth of the national currency was registered in Lithuania (+ 88%), Romania (+ 77%) and Latvia (+ 74%). A significant drop in the national currency was recorded in Spain (-41%) and Denmark (-16%).

Expressed in euros, the highest average prices were in the Netherlands (€47.5/100 kWh), Belgium (€43.5), Romania (€42.0) and Germany (€4.3). The lowest were in Bulgaria (11.4 euros per 100 kWh), Hungary (11.6 euros) and Malta (12.6 euros).

Gas prices (in national currency) increased the most in Latvia (+139%), Romania (+134%), Austria (+103%), the Netherlands (+99%) and Ireland (+73%). At the opposite pole, Estonia, Croatia and Italy fell from -0.6% to -0.5%, while in Lithuania the price remained unchanged.

Read also

• The price of gas remains persistently low, at the level before the energy crisis / Is the cap still justified?

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