Energy Poverty in Europe: from Market Liberalisation to the Green Transition and (Energy) Inflation

This paper offers a review of energy poverty using official European institution reports as a guideline, emphasising links with the green transition, which are not commonly analysed in the literature. We propose a brief review of the academic debate on the definition of energy/fuel poverty and the methodologies used to measure the phenomenon. In addition, we examine the initial phase of the discussion, in which we can observe a growth in reports on the issue of energy poverty produced directly or sponsored by the European Commission. Following this, the topic of energy poverty lost its prevalence, but it became relevant again with the implementation of the European Green Deal. We summarise this new phase in the debate and discuss some best practices in tackling energy poverty, as well as the measures introduced in Italy.