Energy, sterilisation of fuel and bill increases under consideration
The government considers a new decree to deal with the impact of the war in Iran on energy and fuels
Key points
The executive evaluates the advisability of a new measure to mitigate the effects of the war in Iran, not only on fuel prices but also on the bills of electricity and gas. A decree will probably be passed after the approval of the public finance document and after the publication of the new state aid exemptions that the European Commission will launch once the consultation (after 20 April) on the draft proposal shared with the member states is over.
For the coverage, the waiver of the Stability Pact is relied upon
There are still a couple of weeks to ground final decisions. A timeframe that will also serve Brussels to assess the extent to which the current crisis will lead to such consequences that it will not be easily reabsorbed, even if a solution to the conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz were to be reached in the near future. Although the EU Commission has at the moment closed to the possibility of exemptions to the Stability Pact, the data coming in the next few weeks (ECB President Christine Lagarde herself admitted yesterday that Europe is in the middle between a base and an adverse scenario and that the situation changes every day) could lead to different decisions. And it is precisely in this time corridor that the proposal left yesterday by the League leader and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, seems to lie.
Salvini: freeze price increases, let's reason with Giorgetti
"The economic situation for millions of Italians is in danger of becoming increasingly complicated, as Minister of Transport I am thinking of truck drivers, farmers, fishermen, of the solutions we are hypothesising including, I was reasoning about it with Economy Minister Giorgetti, the blocking of the energy bill, of the bill, electricity, gas to pre-war Iran for the whole of 2026," he said. At first, the reference to the energy account had made owners of renewable plants benefiting from the 2011-12 energy account incentives shake in their boots, fearful of a suspension of financial flows that in many cases service bank loans. Those energy accounts are the lynchpin of the system charges that weigh on bills for a total of 6 billion a year and have already entered into the latest Bollette decree that provides, on a voluntary basis, an early exit from incentives.
Prices sterilised at pre-28 February levels
In reality, Salvini would be referring to more far-reaching measures to sterilise the effect of oil and gas increases on fuel and utility bills by taking as a reference the prices before 28 February, the day of the attack on Iran. This would involve drawing on public funds to bridge the gap. The modalities of the intervention are to be clarified: for fuels it would be something that could go beyond the excise measures, which are struggling to produce noticeable effects on prices at the petrol station. While for bills, one could intervene on system charges as happened in 2022, with zeroing or a partial reduction. Or in other ways. Measures such as the so-called taxation of extra profits repeatedly evoked by government representatives could also be part of this measure. Much will depend on the measures that the European Commission will introduce in the Temporary Framework on State Aid. But above all on the willingness to allow a suspension, even limited in time or size, to give flexibility to finance aid even for countries that do not have large margins of manoeuvre on their budgets. Yesterday the Minister for the Environment, Gilberto Picchetto Fratin, also confirmed that new interventions against the high energy costs are being considered. "Clearly we are all working a bit on how to intervene to avoid the explosion of bills," he said.
