TIRANA, Feb.15 – Albania’s opposition has proposed free power supply for families living below the poverty threshold, only days after Ombudsman Igli Totozani urged parliament to pass laws for providing minimal power supply to vulnerable consumers unable to afford it.
The opposition’s proposal affects 82,000 families currently receiving social assistance from the state.
The draft proposed by Democratic Party MP Gerti Bogdani, presented this week to the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, stipulates that poor families receive 90 kWh a month for free during summer time and 150 kWh for the colder part of the year.
However, majority MPs in the committee argued that first the opposition’s proposal has to be discussed in the Committee for Labor, Social Affairs and Health, which they deemed as the appropriate committee to address the matter.
A few days ago, Ombudsman Igli Totozani urged parliament to adopt legislation meant to help poor consumers unable to afford electricity bills.
Totozani said that poor families cannot be deprived of the right to be supplied with electric power at least to a minimal degree, and that a legal package was required to address the issue.
The Ombudsman made reference to Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, which says that the state should take adequate measures for the supply with power of vulnerable consumers.
The Ombudsman’s recommendation came after increasingly receiving complaints from poor families over power cuts due to their inability to pay the bills. The Ombudsman also noted that supply with power is becoming increasingly difficult for vulnerable strata of the population in Albania.
Statistics provided by the Ombudsman show that 14.3 percent of Albanian families live in absolute poverty, circa 35 Euro per month, whereas 2.2 percent live in extreme poverty unable to meet even elementary needs.
Currently, 7.3 percent of Albanian families receive economic assistance, which the government uses as a poverty measure in the absence of a national minimum living level. In reality, this does not reflect the real number of families in need who might require government assistance, which as a result could be significantly higher.
