The European Commission Cuts Bills: Electricity Taxed Less Than Gas in All EU Countries
The European Commission is advancing work on bills with a draft regulation expected in mid-July, part of the Accelerate EU plan launched in April to respond to the energy crisis and geopolitical instability. The document, seen by ANSA, requires EU countries to ensure that electricity remains fiscally more advantageous than natural gas, with the goal of accelerating electrification and easing the bills for households and businesses.
More Favorable Taxation for Electricity
The draft regulation does not set uniform rates at the European level but introduces a precise constraint: each government retains the power to establish its own energy taxes but must ensure that electricity is taxed in a structurally more favorable manner than gas. Brussels also aims to simplify the application of a zero rate for energy-intensive industries and to allow targeted tax reductions for vulnerable households. The package is part of the Citizens Energy Package presented in March 2026, which includes key measures allowing for bills to be reduced by up to 40% with dynamic pricing contracts for those who shift consumption to cheaper time slots.
Network charges amount to about a quarter of the average European bill, and Brussels' proposal addresses these on two fronts: tariffs linked to usage times and measurable criteria to assess the efficiency of operators. The logic is to incentivize consumption during periods when energy is more abundant and cheaper, thus containing the pressure on infrastructures during peak hours. To make all this feasible on a large scale, the regulation sets the goal of equipping at least 50% of users with smart meters by 2030 and 65% by 2033. Cohesion funds can be used to support investments in electricity grids, a flexibility that significantly broadens the range of available resources.
The Context: Accelerate EU and the Energy Crisis
The regulation on bills is one of the pieces of the Accelerate EU plan, adopted on April 22 in response to the instability of energy markets exacerbated by tensions in the Gulf, which identified network infrastructure and energy taxation as two structural knots to untangle. The plan targets 75% of electricity production from renewables by 2030 with accelerated authorization procedures, while between 2026 and 2032, the Social Climate Fund will make available up to 86.7 billion euros to support vulnerable families and small businesses more exposed to price increases. The proposal for regulation will now need to pass the scrutiny of the European Parliament and the Council before becoming operational.