Energy efficiency

Major problems have emerged in the market by a bottleneck in the subsidized property energy upgrade programs.

Greece, along with Italy, continues to experience excessive imbalances but its vulnerabilities appear to be receding due to policy progress, according to fiscal policy recommendations given by the European Commission in the context of the European Semester.

In more detail, the European Commission recommends that Greece:

Greek Alternate Finance Minister Theodoros Skylakakis submitted a request to the European Commission for additional loan financing resources from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), amounting to five billion euros, in the context of REPowerEU.

"The Recovery and Resilience Plan needs to be renegotiated. I believe that with the efforts of the caretaker cabinet and the experts involved in the task, we will be able to renegotiate it in such a way that Bulgaria shows enough ambition for its path to decarbonization before the EC," said the Minister of Environment and Water Rositsa Karamfilova.

Europeans have dialled down their heating this winter, apparently heeding government calls to conserve energy amid the Ukraine crisis, with some delaying switching it on by almost a month and setting the temperature lower, data shows.

In September, most Slovenian companies expected to cut production by the end of the year in the face of the energy crisis. This has been reflected in electricity consumption, which was much lower last month year-on-year, said the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD). The same goes for natural gas consumption in recent months.

The Region of Attica places - as it emphasizes - special importance to the protection of the Environment and taking into account the conditions that have been shaped by the energy crisis, it is intensifying actions such as the energy upgrade of building infrastructure and the replacement of the existing energy-consuming sodium lamps with LED lamps.

Ljubljana – The government confirmed on Thursday an aid package under which EUR 40 million will be disbursed to companies this year and next to help them cope with higher energy costs. Three different types of aid will be available, according to Economy Minister Matjaž Han.

Germany, which fears a shortage of gas, this winter will limit heating in public buildings with a thermostat that will not be able to exceed 19 degrees, announced the Minister of Economy Robert Habeck.

The environmentalist Habeck, who is also the climate minister, already in July presented energy saving measures.

The IMF has called on European governments to pass on rising energy costs to wealthier consumers to encourage "energy conservation" and a switch to greener energy, the Financial Times reports.

Governments across Europe have tried to protect households from skyrocketing costs with broad price controls, tax cuts and subsidies.