“Before the EUR 350 million is discussed, the government must first come up with proposals to reduce the electricity bill,” emphasizes Tinne Van der Straeten, MP of Groen. “A number of things that are charged today will therefore go off when the CRM comes on.”
Vanderstraeten is thinking of adjusting the social tariffs and the costs for offshore wind farms. But then the money for the things that disappear from the energy bill must also be taken elsewhere.
Parliament remains vague about this, and one is looking, for example, at the stricter approach to tax fraud. In any case, the aid mechanism is only passed on to citizens “with the guarantee that the energy bill will fall,” says Vanderstraeten.
“At the end of the ride, the invoice must be lower than it is today,” says Bert Wollants of the N-VA. N-VA also thinks of support for offshore wind turbines as a cost that can be removed from the energy bill.
“We may also choose to sell less capacity, so less support is needed,” N-VA suggests. “My party is thinking of keeping two nuclear power stations open, for example, so that less aid is needed.”
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