18
Oct
2022
Watch
Keep the bills down: social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and the introduction of a windfall tax (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, we are talking about stopping the increase in bills, with social and economic consequences, but now that we are discussing, in very many Member States, bills are being regularised, bills are being raised, 10 times the cost of energy. And here, not only in my country, where citizens have notified me that electricity prices have increased 10 times, here, and in Belgium I received right now, when it is the debate, a letter from a citizen to whom the bill has been increased from 35 euros to 450 euros per month and a regularization bill of over 3 700 euros. What are the concrete measures? Because we can't stay in the cold season and discuss for eight months how we can lower our bills? I come from a meeting with SME Connect, in my capacity as Vice-President of the SME Intergroup, and the concrete question of entrepreneurs in Germany, in Austria, where did they come from, in Slovakia, how do we lower energy bills? And this must be the answer that we must give to both citizens and SMEs if we are not to have social and economic consequences.