The European Commission has answered the request, from Italy and other countries, to allow budget flexibility in order to tackle the energy emergency. A tiny flexibility (0.3%) has been allowed—but only for long-term measures, most of which are ideological ones. Urgent measures to reduce gasoline, heating, etc. costs for households have been explicitly rejected—exactly the measures demanded by Italy and Greece.
The EU published its decision in the EU Official Journal on August 18. It contains a list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” The “do” list includes subsidies and cheap loans for renewables, clean tech, home renovations, and industrial decarbonization technologies. Governments can also spend flexible money on electrification more broadly, including on grids, large scale battery storage, trams, and metros—essentially anything that structurally cuts fossil-fuel dependence.
