Natural gas, gas stove, energy, consumption – illustrative photo.
Brussels/Prague – In the second half of last year, gas prices for households in the Czech Republic rose the most year-on-year among all European Union countries, the European statistical office Eurostat said today in its report. According to him, the growth was 231 percent, while in Slovakia, for example, it reached 18 percent and was the second lowest in the Union. If the price is expressed in euros, households in Hungary had the cheapest gas, according to Eurostat. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the figures on gas prices wrong. According to the Czech Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ), the data is based on suppliers' price offers on the market at the time, so they do not correspond to actual customer payments.
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According to analysts, the vast majority of consumers in the Czech Republic paid significantly less for energy last year than Eurostat data indicate. In a statement to ČTK, the European Statistical Office stated that it used data from the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ). He said that he took over the data from ERO and then sent it to Eurostat. According to its spokesman, ERO sends data to the statistical office according to the methodology established by the CZSO. According to the CZSO, Eurostat processes the data according to its own methodology.
According to the Eurostat report, the increase in electricity prices in the Czech Republic was the second highest in the entire EU and reached 97 percent year-on-year. Electricity became the least expensive in Luxembourg, where the growth was three percent.
On average, the price of electricity for households in the second half of last year increased by 28.4 percent across the EU. The price of gas in the Union increased by 11.4 percent.
In addition to Romania and the Czech Republic, according to Eurostat, electricity became more expensive in Denmark (by 70 percent), Lithuania (by 65 percent) and Latvia (by 59 percent). They had to pay the least extra for electricity in Luxembourg (plus three percent), Austria and Germany (by four percent in both countries) and in Poland and Bulgaria (by five percent in both countries).
Expressed in euros, average gas prices for households in the second half of last year were the lowest in Hungary (3.5 euros per 100 kilowatt hours), Croatia (4.5 euros per 100 kWh) and Slovakia (4.9 euros per 100 kWh) , the highest in Sweden (27.5 euros per 100 kWh) and in Denmark (20.8 euros per 100 kWh), according to Eurostat.
On Tuesday, the largest domestic electricity suppliers objected to earlier Eurostat data for electricity. According to the companies ČEZ and E.ON, the vast majority of their customers paid significantly less than stated in their Eurostat report.
“We do not consider the Eurostat data that are appearing in the media to be representative from the point of view of ČEZ Prodej's customers, and we do not understand how the published figures are created,” said ČEZ spokesman Roman Gazdík. According to him, the average price of electricity from this company in the second half of last year, after taking into account the savings tariff, was CZK 4,847 per megawatt hour (MWh), while Eurostat states CZK 9,410 per MWh. E.ON evaluates Eurostat's report in a similar way, according to which most clients paid an amount 43 percent lower per MWh in the second half of last year than Eurostat states.
Energy prices began to rise significantly even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was at the end of February last year. Then the growth of energy prices accelerated until the second half of the year. Electricity and natural gas have recently shown signs of stabilization, according to Eurostat partly due to EU policies and interventions.
Individual countries of the union have chosen different measures to deal with the sharp rise in energy prices. Some have reduced taxes and fees, temporarily waived taxes for consumers, introduced price caps, provided one-off support or allocated vouchers to end consumers. Some member states also applied regulated prices.
