Energy Poverty Across the EU-27: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

At the global and European level, the current geopolitical conjunctures bring to light various extremely dramatic realities, and the fight for resources often overrides people and their needs. In this framework, poverty and inequality, quality of life and well-being seem less important than the petty interests of the great powers. However, they are the real driving force of these interests or they should be. In this context, discussions about poverty, and especially about energy poverty, should not be missing. Energy poverty is an extremely complex concept and little understood in the fullness of its meanings. Many policymakers, members of the media and researchers associate it in one form or another with material poverty or income poverty, but its meanings are much more granular, delicate, difficult to capture and may or may not overlap with income poverty. Thus, the objective of the article is to critically analyze the concept of energy poverty, identify several valuable indicators for describing energy poverty and analyze them at the EU27 level for the period 2015-2024. The methodology reflects the comparative analysis of several energy poverty indicators, based on Eurostat statistical data. The results emphasize that energy poverty must be treated in a broad way, overlapping different filters or nuances, each new indicator outlining yet another problem to be solved and requiring particular solutions depending on the desired direction of analysis. UDC: 620.9(4EU); JEL: I32, Q43, R2