An Analysis of the Impact of Fiscal Instruments on Energy Poverty in EU27
Abstract:
The war in Ukraine has exposed a number of problems of the advanced economies of the European Union (EU27), including: dependence on energy resources provided by Russia, increased pressure on the need to find alternative sources of energy independence, including through better exploitation of renewable, innovative or advanced storage means, the need to increase the interoperability of energy networks at European level, the consolidation of energy-efficient residential and public building structures that put less and less pressure on the European energy infrastructure. In this context, we can talk about energy poverty and the means to combat it. Beyond general economic methods, there is a part of the public toolkit that can be used effectively in com bating energy poverty. Therefore, the objective of the article is to analyze the impact of some fiscal-budgetary instruments on energy poverty for the period 2010-2024 for 27 EU countries. The methodology envisages a panel analysis at a general level, but also with detail on fixed and random effects. At the same time, an inter esting division is made into three groups of countries (North-eastern countries -NEC, South-western countries SWC, and Central countries - CC) to help us better discern the heterogeneities at the EU27 level regarding energy poverty. The results prove that the fiscal-budgetary instrument is more intensively used in the case of Central and South-western countries, this also against the background of some delays in identifying and solv ing the problem, compared to the Nordic countries. At the same time, the implications are given by the fact that the results confirm the economic theory regarding fiscal instruments to combat energy poverty, in the sense that both environmental taxes on energy, as well as VAT and subsidies, can play an active and important role in controlling and combating the phenomenon, which requires measures to refine the panoply of instruments and each individual instrument, as well as a more coherent interconnection between fiscal instruments at the European level.
