Arrears of ‘energy tourists’

Dues totaling 1.5 billion euros are what consumers changing providers have left in the electricity market. The largest percentage corresponds to unpaid debts of consumers who abuse the right to free movement provided for in the Electricity Supply Code.

This is the phenomenon of "energy tourism," the term with which the market describes the practice of consumers moving from provider to provider without having repaid their debts to the previous one. This practice continues unhindered by the category of "strategic defaulters," as more than a year has passed since the first announcements by Minister of Environment and Energy Thodoros Skylakakis to stop the phenomenon in early October last year.

Watchdog RAAEY only delivered its opinion on the amendment of Article 42 of the Procurement Code on December 6, an opinion issued following an order from the competent minister and...