The government will continue providing energy aid to Slovak households in 2026 to help them cover bills for electricity, natural gas and heating. Unlike in previous years, the aid will now be targeted and provided only to households deemed to be in need, the government claims. Which households will qualify has not yet been determined.
“The aim of the bill is to ensure an appropriate and adequate legal and institutional framework for providing assistance with increased energy prices to energy-consuming households, to the extent and in the form specified by government regulation,” the Economy Ministry said in its explanatory report.
MPs on October 1, definitively approved a new law on targeted energy assistance, debated under a fast-tracked legislative procedure. Households will start receiving targeted assistance from next year, while the current across-the-board compensation scheme will end this December.
The specifics of the new system – including who will qualify and in what amounts – will only be known once the relevant government regulations are adopted.
For now, the government estimates that around 90% of Slovak households should benefit from targeted support. The final decision will be based on a new national register of residents, to be created for the purpose of assessing eligibility.
The aid is projected to reach EUR 435 million. Prime Minister Robert Fico has suggested that this sum could be drawn from unused EU funds, with Economy Minister Denisa Sakova regularly travelling to Brussels to negotiate the matter.
Fico noted during the summer that, without the planned assistance, energy prices for Slovak households would rise by around 30% next year.
Since the launch of various forms of “energy assistance” at the end of 2022 up to 2024, the state has spent more than EUR 4 billion subsidising gas, electricity and heating. For 2025, energy aid is expected to total between EUR 235 and EUR 238 million.
The new law does not bring genuinely targeted aid but still represents blanket spending of public money, opposition MPs from Progressive Slovakia (PS) and the Christian Democrats (KDH) said in response to its passage. They also criticised the government’s plan to use EU funds, arguing that these should be directed to other purposes.
According to the opposition, the law in effect assumes that 90% to 95% of Slovaks are poor and require energy assistance – a claim they reject.
“We believe that, at a time of fiscal consolidation, this is simply unnecessary waste,” said PS MP Jan Hargas, who also objected to using EU funds to finance the scheme.
He was equally critical of creating a new register containing data on all Slovak residents to assess eligibility.
“We proposed that the law should allow people to refuse such extensive data collection, as planned by the Economy Ministry. This involves the most sensitive data on income and property, and we do not agree with it. Our proposal was rejected, which is why we could not support this law,” Hargas added.
As an alternative, PS has long advocated the introduction of a housing allowance, which would require collecting data only from those who actively apply for assistance.
KDH likewise criticised the plan to cover next year’s EUR 435 million package from EU funds. In their view, the aid should be genuinely targeted, requiring a smaller budget while better reaching the most vulnerable.
“The government has instead decided to take money meant for EU-funded projects, burn it in boilers, and extend support to 90% of the population,” said Igor Janckulik, head of the KDH parliamentary caucus.
His party colleague Martin Smilnak went even further, arguing that this was not energy assistance but an “energy bribe” – a token payment handed out to nearly everyone in Slovakia as a substitute for real fiscal consolidation.
“With the same money, we could have insulated homes, replaced boilers with more efficient ones, and saved much more in the long run,” Smilnak said. (The Slovak Spectator)