International News

BARCELONA, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Pedro and Mohamed
await every utility bill with much angst.
To reduce the money they have to pay, they lve in the dark, without
heating, or shower just once a week — victims like millions in Spain of energy poverty.
Welfare associations have for years warned against this situation,
but the death earlier this month of 81-year-old Rosa in a fire caused by a candle she used for light has brought the issue firmly to the fore.
Socialist lawmaker Pilar Lucio asked the ruling conservative
government to immediately implement a “winter truce” on companies cutting power to those who cannot pay — a measure with majority support in parliament and encouraged in a 2009 EU directive.
Last year, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute, 10.6
percent of Spaniards were unable to properly heat their homes — or more than four million people — compared to just 5.9 percent in 2008, when an economic crisis kicked off.
At fault are the economic crisis and widespread loss of jobs it
caused, as well as a 30- to 50-percent rise in utility prices since 2006.