Iberdrola protects almost all its customers from cutting light for not paying the light receipt, 99% of the total. It is the title of the press release sent by Iberdrola on 20 October. Regarding the agreements signed with public institutions and sector 3 in charge of public attention, the leading electricity company in the Basque Country ensures that its clients in vulnerable situations remain electricity, “according to the general policy of Social Responsibility of the Group”. But what less? “Taking into account that it manages a privatized public service” and that it continues to receive money that families cannot afford: thanks to public budgets. We've been given the special Tuesday to Sun. In Navarre there are 96,000 people at risk of energy poverty; in the CAV, in 2014, 235,526 people had problems keeping the house at adequate temperatures during the cold months.

The City Council of Bilbao signed the agreement in October 2015; that of Vitoria-Gasteiz in November of the same year; that of Donostia-San Sebastián in June and August of this year, that of Irún. The aim of all conventions is not to cut the light on citizens who have economic difficulties in paying for the light. In Navarra, the government has signed with the main electricity company: “When the customer is unable to pay, the company will continue to offer the service as long as institutions manage emergency plans to pay off debts from unpaid invoices.” All the agreements signed with energy companies say the same thing: they want to respond to energy poverty. It seems an appropriate solution because the priority is to ensure the living conditions of people living in the home with dignity. However, the increasingly precarious economic situations of families need more than pettes. “The solution cannot be for public institutions to assume the debt of the people; it is a right to energy”, from the collective Los Tuesdays al Sol is clear.

The PSE-EE parliamentarian Natalia Rojo is also well aware of the issue of energy poverty: in the last legislature she presented 25 parliamentary initiatives in the Basque Parliament. In the 2014 plenary session, it was agreed to request the Basque Government to take the necessary measures to “prevent anyone from cutting off the supply of electricity, water or gas if that person proves that they cannot pay their bills, especially in times of high demand”.

This agreement enabled the Basque Government to allocate EUR 200,000 to aid for people in energy poverty in 2015, a budget line of EUR 400,000 in 2016. “From the outset we demanded that this item could not be part of Emergency Social Aid or Income Guarantee,” says Rojo: “Many families with economic problems in paying for electricity or water are not included in the social aid system; many are low-wage families and therefore are not entitled to social aid, even if they do not have enough money to pay for electricity or water.” Thus, it was agreed to use Sector 3 for the management of this specific assistance, coordinated by the Red Cross: “We note that municipalities cannot assume responsibility, because otherwise the basic social partners are sufficiently overwhelmed and, in addition, the people who have this need are not in the database of the support systems they use”.

The Red Cross keeps track of the target people and makes the commitment to the applicants “to participate in group training sessions to change consumption habits, as well as other support pathways,” explains Aitor Allende, coordinator of the Red Cross Euskadi. He has provided us with the CAPV data: In 2015, 427 families were attended, in 2016, 1,341 families were attended so that they do not run out of light (599 in Bizkaia, 395 in Gipuzkoa and 347 in Álava). The Basque Government has already allocated 98% of the budget line, “but if necessary, the institution will advance the money”. Red Cross takes care of all the procedures to be carried out with Iberdrola.

A law to guarantee the right to energy

In addition to the aid approved by the Basque and Navarre institutions to deal with energy poverty, the Spanish Government regulated in 2009 the so-called social bonus. Thus, persons with a contracted power of less than three kW, pensioners over 60 years of age, large families or family units with all their unemployed members may request a 25% reduction in the electricity bill. But this is also a temporary solution.

That is why all those who have worked on this issue believe that a law would be needed to ensure that the right to energy is guaranteed. Like the Red Parliamentarian, Israel González, a member of the collective Los Tuesdays al Sol, has also stressed the need for a law. In May a proposal for a law was presented to the Parliament of Navarra: “Access to energy is a right and is not guaranteed today. We must not forget that the present situation has brought us the privatisation of public energy services. They were turned into private businesses to make a lot of money and it’s a fully armored sector.”

Despite the fact that electricity and gas companies have signed agreements with municipalities and governments, they continue to pay off the debt: governments advance that money, both with the support of the Red Cross and with the support of municipalities and other entities. Following what was agreed in Navarre, for example, the energy company has committed itself not to cut the light in three months and the social rights department has assumed the cost of electricity in that time: In 2016 the Government of Navarre approved a budget of EUR 2 million for emergency plans, so, as González stressed, “energy companies do not fail to make money”.

Ararteko also recommended in January that a strategy be developed that would include concrete measures to address energy poverty. The document “Bases for the social debate on energy poverty in the Basque Country” recommended, among other things, the consolidation of the Basque strategy to fight energy poverty and elaborating a “Law to establish the definition of persons or households that meet the requirements for the Basque Government to be considered vulnerable and potentially vulnerable to energy poverty”.