A Brussels official last week called on European Union countries to start phasing out massive energy subsidies for consumers as they prepare to re-impose budget rules three years after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. For now, there are no such announcements from our Government, but they say to "Sloboden Pechat" that they are monitoring what is happening and will make appropriate decisions.

- The government's economic and energy team is monitoring the situation at the domestic and regional level, regarding the situation with the energy markets, and in the coming period appropriate decisions will be made that will primarily be in the interest of the citizens and the companies - the Government says.

From there, they add that after the end of the crisis in April, the effects so far and the way of dealing with the crisis in the past period will be publicly presented.

-One of the main determinations of the Government in the past period, especially for the duration of the energy crisis, was the uninterrupted supply of electricity, thermal energy, natural gas, oil derivatives, etc. For this purpose, budget funds were allocated to support both the economy and the citizens. It was noted by the World Bank that we allocate the most funds from the countries in the region. With the allocated funds and measures, we managed to amortize the consequences of the crisis, which mostly affected the vulnerable categories and businesses - the Government explains.

AD ESM announced that "the Government or the Ministry of Economy are responsible for energy subsidies, as well as for decisions and statements about their abolition."

- We have subsidies for electricity for consumers by decision of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia in order to cover part of the price of electricity produced by AD ESM for the universal supplier - it is stated in the answer that "Sloboden Pechat" received from AD ESM.

In the news published by the Bulletin of the Energy Agency of Serbia, it is stated, among other things, that the EC presented its plan to restore the Stability and Growth Pact, which was suspended at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, because EU governments spent huge sums on supporting their economies and providing health care. Rising energy prices as a result of the war in Ukraine last year prompted member states to provide support to households and businesses struggling to pay their bills. However, the European Commission believes that the measures should now be withdrawn. Governments spent 1,2 percent of EU GDP in 2022 on energy subsidies and plan to spend 0,9 percent in 2023.

– As the energy prices decrease, we should move towards the gradual abolition of most of the support measures, starting with those that are least targeted – said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the Commission.

Bekteshi: Macedonia spent the least amount of money on the energy crisis

The Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi has the analysis of everything that has been undertaken and how much money has been spent on the energy analysis, but he will leave it to the public to be presented by the director of ESM, Vasko Kovacevski.

- I have the analysis, but I would leave it to the ESM director to make a cross-section of how we dealt with the energy crisis. I can say that if we make a comparison with other countries, we are the best, that is, we dealt with the energy crisis with the least amount of money, both in terms of the lack of restrictions and in terms of the price of electricity for households.