More than a dozen EU member states, including Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Hungary, are resisting European Commission plans to favour electricity over gas through preferential taxation and common rules for calculating grid charges. The Commission is seeking to make electricity structurally cheaper than gas, a policy that could affect energy costs for households and industry.
The disagreement is not simply about whether electrification is desirable. It concerns control over price signals and how quickly national energy systems can absorb them. Southeast European electricity grids differ in their generation mix, investment needs, cross-border congestion and share of regulated customers, leaving governments seeking room to set tariffs and taxes to suit domestic conditions rather than use a single EU template.
Grid charges are particularly contentious as network investment accelerates. Bulgaria reports more than €182 million in transmission investment in 2026, while Romania, Croatia and Hungary are managing large renewable energy, storage or interconnection programmes.
Shifting costs between electricity and gas can alter household bills, industrial competitiveness and the bankability of electrification projects. European policy calls for faster electrification, but expensive grid expansion is needed before lower electricity charges can be sustained. For Southeast European countries with lower incomes and significant industrial demand, political tolerance for bringing those costs forward is limited.
The countries are seeking flexibility over the pace of electrification, tariff structures and how grid costs are allocated among households, industry and public budgets. The challenge to common EU rules therefore centres on who pays for network expansion and when those costs are reflected in tariffs, even as member states continue supporting electrification.
