One in four Greeks cannot afford to heat their home sufficiently, the Eurostat announced following data collected as part of the annual EU survey 2017 on income and living conditions in the bloc.
Based on the report, 25.7% of Greeks said they were not able to keep their home adequately warm due to their economic situation.
Greeks buy heating oil at an average price of 1,025 euros per liter when the average price for the whole of the European Union is 0.794 euros per liter and 0.781 euros in the eurozone
In 2017, 8 % of the European Union (EU) population said in an EU-wide survey that they could not afford to heat their home sufficiently.
This share peaked in 2012 (11 %), and has fallen continuously in subsequent years.
In 2009, 12% of Greeks could not afford to heat their homes, in 2011 the rate rose to 18.6% and skyrocketed to 32.9% in 2014, due to the extra fees and taxes imposed on heating oil. In 2015, the rate fell to 29.2% and to 29.1% in 2016.
The situation in the EU Member States varies. The largest share of people who said that they could not afford to keep their home adequately warm was recorded in Bulgaria (37 %), followed by Lithuania (29 %), Greece (26 %), Cyprus (23 %) and Portugal (20 %).
In contrast, the lowest shares (close to 2 %) were recorded in Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria.
This share peaked in 2012 with 11 percent, and has fallen continuously in subsequent years.
While we will be waiting for two more years to read the data of 2018, this winter the Greek Fire Service had to intervene several times to extinguish fire in homes caused by candles and makeshift stoves.
Two days ago, an apartment in Drapetsona, Piraeus, was completely destroyed after a fire broke out due to candles. The owner, a 45-year-old man with several health problems had been living in conditio9ns of extreme poverty after his father died and the only income, the father’s pension, was cut. the man had been living also without electricity for the last months.
