The decision of the Constitutional Court on energy poverty has taken the Catalan Government by surprise. From the Department of Social Rights they explained this Thursday that, while waiting to know the substance of the ruling that ends the so-called precautionary principle, they hope that the reinforcement of direct aid for vulnerable families and greater promotion of the social bonus – state aid – will avoid the disconnection of basic supplies. However, the Third Sector Taula and the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACN), or Administrations such as the Barcelona City Council warn that the bond income rates are higher, that people will be left out of the aid and that they will have to assume the bill for non-payments.
The main beam was the precautionary principle, which the TC now nullifies after the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia had raised a question of unconstitutionality. This mechanism obliged supply companies to consult with city councils about the social situation of a client before cutting off their service. If there is no response from the councils within 15 days, the law established that the supply could not be suspended. “The first step had to be taken by the company and not by the citizen, which allowed social services to act preventively,” they recall from Barcelona City Council, where last year 8,841 reports were issued that prevented the same number of cuts (61% of the total consultations).
The ruling of the Constitutional Court, which it considers violates, is the second blow so far this year against the scaffolding with which the Generalitat tries to confront energy poverty. In —the supplier with the most subscribers in Catalonia— and which allowed the Administrations to cover the outstanding debts of vulnerable clients, in addition to generating alternative mechanisms such as social accountants. Since January, Social Rights was searching for an alternative to the agreement, but to that we must now add the suspension of the precautionary principle.
The ruling, together with the loss of the agreement, has ended up weakening the Catalan scheme for protection against energy poverty, according to Idescat.
Yesterday the Government recalled the effort made through the program contract and the allocation of an additional 9.3 million euros for emergency aid to vulnerable households in a situation of energy poverty. “Our priority is to continue protecting families and we will find the elements to do so,” they say from Social Rights. For now, they are also committed to ensuring that the social bonus reaches more people.
This commitment to the social bonus, a state aid with an implementation far below expectations, is received with reluctance by entities and Administrations. “80% of Catalan citizens who could access the social bonus do not have it,” explained Àlex Verdejo, spokesperson for the APE. A vulnerable Catalan family, the activist added, would now only be protected by the cutoff moratoriums associated with this state aid and which has been extended since the pandemic and, in recent months, due to the energy crisis due to the war in Iran. “It is a temporary measure and we have seen the difficulties in the last validations of the decree laws,” he warned.
The entities demonstrated on Thursday afternoon against the sentence, in front of the TSJC headquarters. “The strength of Law 24/2015 is not only shown in the figures of avoided cuts. Thanks to social pressure and the organizational capacity of social movements, this law also made it possible to force large companies such as Endesa and Agbar to sign agreements that incorporated debt forgiveness mechanisms,” the APE points out in a note, in which it recalls that, in the case of Endesa, some 41,000 households benefited from this measure. “These data show that the law is not only necessary, but that it has worked and has forced large suppliers to assume their responsibility.”
The Taula del Tercer Sector, the organization that represents 3,000 social entities in Catalonia, expresses in a statement that the judicial decision is “a very serious step backwards in the protection of the energy rights of people in vulnerable situations. In practice, it leaves thousands of families more exposed to losing access to basic supplies,” denounces the Taula, who recalls that the decision comes “at a particularly worrying time, because the agreement that until now protected homes in Catalonia has expired without an alternative clear.” La Taula considers that the precautionary principle of the law was fundamental, and regrets that now the weight of the decision to cut off supplies falls once again on administrative and bureaucratic procedures that do not react with the urgency necessary in this area.
“State regulations, although they protect certain more vulnerable profiles, place the burden of the process on the citizen and the procedures to prove vulnerability are more complex,” the Barcelona city council recalls. According to their data, two thirds of the population at risk of poverty do not agree to process state aid.
Meritxell Budó, president of the ACM, warned that it will be the municipalities who end up paying the bill for the annulment of the two central articles of the law. “To avoid cuts, it will be up to the City Councils to allocate more money to direct aid to pay for supplies,” said the mayor of La Garriga (Barcelona). “We are very concerned about this decision,” added the municipal leader, who believes that the TC ignores the fact that Catalonia has full powers in social protection.
