Energy becomes “unpayable” for “millions” of workers, warn European unions – Le Figaro

They call on European governments, who will meet at the end of the week in Prague to discuss energy issues, to “put an end to unsustainable price increases”. Rising electricity and gas prices are making energy bills millions of “unpayable” Europeans, warned the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on Tuesday in a press release. “Some 9.5 million workers were already having difficulty paying their energy bills” before inflation is soaring to reach the record level of 9.1% over one year in August in the euro zone, says the ETUC, which is based on a study by the European Trade Union Institute. From July 2021 to July 2022, the cost of gas and electricity increased by 38% across Europe “and it continues to climb”. As a result, in sixteen Member States of the European Union (EU) including France, “workers paid the minimum wage must set aside the equivalent of a month’s salary or more to continue to have light and heat at home”, deplore the unions. In 2021, this was only the case in eight of the twenty-seven EU member states. Read also The executive’s scenarios in the face of soaring energy pricesIn 2022, an Estonian asset must thus work twenty-six days more than in 2021 to pay his annual energy bill, and a Dutch worker twenty more days. In Slovakia, Greece, the Czech Republic and Italy, “the average annual energy bill now represents more than a month’s salary for an active paid at the average salary” of his country, details the ETUC. “When your annual bill is more than a month’s salary, there are no tricks to saving money. These prices are simply unaffordable today for millions of people, ”says ETUC Deputy General Secretary Esther Lynch, quoted in the press release. in Prague to discuss energy issues, to “put an end to unsustainable price increases”. The ETUC also calls for capping energy bills and taxing the “windfall profits” of energy companies. Paris and Berlin have pushed in recent days for a simple “contribution”, non-fiscal, from these companies. “Political leaders must seize this crisis before it costs lives this winter,” insists Esther Lynch.