Energy support in the European Union is granted from 2026 almost exclusively to vulnerable consumers, through social mechanisms, while Romania is among the few states that still apply general protection schemes, according to an analysis carried out by the Smart Energy Association (AEI).
"Although the price per population in relation to the purchasing power - as of July 2025 - in Romania is four times higher than in the country with the lowest price, it has aid (gas and electricity) for vulnerable consumers in 2026 about five times lower than the country with the lowest price of electricity in relation to purchasing power," according to AEI.
In 2026, the EU's policy on energy support has definitively entered a new phase, in which universal protection has been replaced by targeted social protection. "After the expiry of the crisis mechanisms - caps and general subsidies - almost all member states have returned to a market logic for prices, compensated by direct aid only for vulnerable consumers. The fact that only four to five countries still preserve support for all consumers shows how isolated such policies have become," the document reads.
According to the AEI, only five states will apply support measures for all gas consumers in 2026 - Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary - and only four for all electricity consumers - Croatia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Elsewhere in the European Union, support is extended exclusively to vulnerable consumers, with the largest aid being in Greece, France, Malta, Denmark, Cyprus and Ireland, where it can reach up to EUR 1,800 per year.
AEI also point out that most member states have accepted that a general subsidy is fiscally unsustainable, distorts investments in efficiency and clean energy and conflicts with European climate and budgetary rules.
Given the context, from 2026 the Social Climate Fund becomes operational, a new European mechanism designed to support vulnerable families affected by the energy transition, including by covering heating and energy costs. "This is not a new European ceiling, but a social co-financing instrument, which shifts protection from everyone's bill to targeted support for households exposed to energy poverty," the release reads.
At the same time, AEI says that the European Union no longer allows the application of a common gas price cap for household consumers, as the mechanism expired on December 31, 2024. In 2022-2023, Western European countries compensated for the increase in prices by cutting taxes and allocating funds, with Germany providing support in the form of direct subsidies, price caps and tax reductions.
Each German citizen thus got approximately EUR 1,717 in that period, as against 386 euros in the case of Romania in 2022-2025, exclusively through price caps.
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