Skip to content
REPORT (2023/2115(INI))

On the gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the impact of the energy crisis

A-9-2023-0430

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality · Rapporteur: Alice Kuhnke

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull textProcedure & committee votes
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 26 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

Parliament's resolution on the gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the impact of the energy crisis finds that women are disproportionately affected by energy poverty and calls for gender-sensitive responses. It calls for an extraordinary support package of EUR 100 billion for families and at least EUR 20 billion for the European Child Guarantee, and for a ban on energy disconnections. It asks the Commission to integrate gender and intersectional dimensions into energy and climate policies, national energy and climate plans, and the European Green Deal, and to appoint an EU gender and climate coordinator. It calls for gender-disaggregated data on energy poverty, gender budgeting across the EU budget, and measures to reduce the gender gap in the energy sector.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission to deliver on its commitment to promote gender equality in all policymaking and to ensure the European Green Deal includes a gender-transformative intersectional strategy to address energy poverty.
  2. Regrets that Commission Recommendation (EU) 2023/2407 on energy poverty fails to recognise the gendered aspects of energy poverty and the need for gender-disaggregated data.
  3. Calls for an extraordinary package of EUR 100 billion for families most affected by energy poverty and at least EUR 20 billion to scale up the European Child Guarantee.
  4. Calls on Member States and the EU to guarantee affordable utilities and food for low-income households, ban energy disconnections, and prioritise housing renovation.
  5. Calls on the Commission and Member States to address poverty among women, including through a 2030 European anti-poverty strategy with concrete targets, and to take gender-sensitive approaches to pension systems.
  6. Calls on the Commission to propose new legislative acts to stop speculators from making energy unaffordable for women and to mitigate the financialisation of housing markets.
  7. Calls on the Commission's Directorate-General for Energy to develop a gender action plan integrating the gender dimension into all EU energy legislation.
  8. Calls on the Commission and Member States to mainstream gender equality into all policies responding to the energy crisis and to require mandatory gender impact assessments in national energy and climate plans.
  9. Calls on Member States to increase public investment in care, education, health, affordable housing, transport and energy, and to ensure adequate minimum income and wages.
  10. Calls for gender and intersectional perspectives in definitions of energy poverty and for improved collection of gender-disaggregated data by the Commission, Eurostat and Member States.
  11. Calls on the Commission to appoint an EU gender and climate coordinator and to introduce gender impact assessments in all EU policies, particularly European Green Deal initiatives.
  12. Calls on the Commission and Member States to reduce the gender gap in the energy sector by tackling under-representation of women in STEAM careers and ensuring equal access to vocational training.

Who is affected

  • Women in the EU, especially single mothers, women with disabilities, migrant and refugee women, elderly women and women in rural areas, who face disproportionate energy poverty.
  • Member States, which are asked to ban energy disconnections, increase public investment in social services and housing, and conduct gender impact assessments.
  • The Commission, which is asked to develop a gender action plan, propose new legislation against speculation, and integrate gender into energy and climate policies.
  • Energy companies, which are called on to take a proportional approach to disconnections and eradicate gender-based discrimination.
  • Women-led SMEs, which should be ensured affordable utilities and equal access to opportunities in the green transition.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 100 billion for families most affected by energy poverty
  • at least EUR 20 billion to scale up the European Child Guarantee scheme
  • more than 50 million people affected by energy poverty in the EU
  • 6.9 % of all Union households were behind on their utility bills in 2021
  • 6.4 % indicated that they were unable to keep their homes warm in 2021
  • over 41 million Europeans were unable to keep their homes adequately warm in 2022
  • gender pay gap still stands at 12.7 % across the EU
  • women receive a retirement income on average 35 % lower than men in the EU

Legal basis: Articles 2, 3(1) and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union; Articles 8, 9, 10, 119, 122, 127, 151, 153(2), 156, 157, 191 and 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union