The idea is suggested by the national energy mediator, but the current legislation would have to be changed.
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For Olivier Challan-Belval, national energy mediator, the observation is simple: like the right to housing, to water, or now to the opening of a bank account, it is necessary today to guarantee a minimum right of access to energy. Because without electricity, no light, no heating, no telephone or internet access. The idea will gain ground when the pandemic plunges many of our fellow citizens into difficulty: according to the latest report from the mediator – whose role is to settle disputes between customers and suppliers or administration – 20% of French people say they have suffered from the cold in their home last winter.
For now, this is only a proposal, it will be up to the politician to decide as a last resort. It would be a question of putting in place a new regulation, of exploring the legal modalities of a right to a minimum food. Today, the energy code defines electricity as “a staple product” and no “minimal”. The term is important because, each year, up to 300,000 households see their food cut because of an unpaid.
These measures would go further than those recently decided by the government. There is already the energy check of one hundred euros for precarious households, the freezing of the rise in gas prices and the limitation of that of electricity. But these are short-term measures that in no way resolve the issue of minimum access to energy that the mediator is talking about. As every year, on November 1, the winter break from electricity and gas cuts for five months began, but energy suppliers will again be able to cut off the power supply to homes in default from April 1. Unless the government decides otherwise by then.