POLITICS & INSTITUTIONS - EUROPE
Europewide data

Luxembourg outspends rest of Europe in energy aid per capita

Jeremy Zabatta

Written by Jeremy Zabatta

Published on 14.02.2023

Luxembourg has reportedly spent €2.4bn on helping with its consumers’ energy bills, or 3.3% of its GDP. In a Europewide context, this puts it in the middle of the pack. Photo: Shutterstock

Luxembourg has reportedly spent €2.4bn on helping with its consumers’ energy bills, or 3.3% of its GDP. In a Europewide context, this puts it in the middle of the pack.  Photo: Shutterstock

According to Bruegel, just under €800bn have been allocated by European countries since September 2021 to tackle the energy crisis. In percentage-of-GDP terms, Luxembourg was an average contributor, but it tops the chart in per-capita spending.

Bruegel, a think tank based in Brussels, puts the Europewide amount of money pledged at €792bn.

That breaks down to €681bn spent by the 27 EU member states, €103bn by the UK and €8.1bn by Norway.

Focusing only on EU countries, Bruegel highlights that Germany, the largest economy in Europe, has spent €268bn (7.5% of its GDP) on consumer protection, which is 39.3% of all European countries’ spending in this area. In second place, France has allocated €91.2bn (3.7% of its GDP) to protect its consumers from soaring energy prices. At €9.1bn, or 9.3% of its GDP, Slovakia has made the greatest proportional effort.

Equivalent of €3,732 per person

According to the think tank, Luxembourg mobilised €2.4bn to contain consumers’ energy bills, i.e., 3.3% of its GDP. This puts the grand duchy in the middle of the rankings--however, on a per capita basis, the grand duchy outspent the rest of Europe: the equivalent of €3,732 per person has gone to helping with rising energy prices. Germany follows with €3,179, then Austria with €2,375.

At the bottom of the list are Hungary (with €276 per person), Finland (€256) and Cyprus (€233).

This article was originally published in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.