Nowhere in Europe has the electricity bill risen so sharply as in Belgium

The price of electricity for Belgian households has almost doubled compared to the previous year. There is no such sharp price increase anywhere else in the EU.

This is evidenced by the comparison made by the European Agency for Energy Regulators left Made from European capitals, based on prices (euro cents per kilowatt-hour) in February. ACER explains: “The impact on individual households varied according to contract types and pricing mechanisms, as well as short-term mitigation measures by national governments.”

• Brussels results in a price increase of 99 percent, almost double it, while in Berlin, for example, it is only 20 percent and in Paris only 13 percent.
• The average price increase in the European Union was 30 percent. This means that Belgian electricity prices have risen three times faster than the average.
• Also in absolute terms, around 43 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, Brussels (Belgium) is the most likely candidate, along with Copenhagen (Denmark). In Amsterdam, for example, this is about half the amount.

Variable Contracts

According to ACER, which examined wholesale markets at the request of the European Commission, there is no structural flaw in the European wholesale market, but it is still much possible to integrate the European energy market and thus reduce large price differentials between member states.

The agency is also calling on member states and their energy regulators to ensure consumers have clear information about their bills, especially when it comes to the risks of changing prices. Due to the turmoil in the wholesale market, electricity contracts are fixed in price increasingly rare†

(fjc)