Malta has among the lowest energy prices in the EU — first cheapest for households and second cheapest for businesses.
Documentary fact, confirmed by Eurostat. Malta's residential electricity tariff (Band DC, ~€0.13/kWh in H2 2024) is among the lowest in the EU bloc — roughly half the EU-27 average of ~€0.29/kWh. For non-household consumers (Band IC, mid-sized businesses) Malta is in the cheapest 2-3 member states. Tariffs have been frozen since 2014 via the energy-subsidy programme. The fiscal cost is large (€350-600M/year averaged) but on the consumer-price metric the claim is right.
Documentary fact, confirmed by Eurostat. Malta's residential electricity tariff (Band DC, ~€0.13/kWh in H2 2024) is among the lowest in the EU bloc — roughly half the EU-27 average of ~€0.29/kWh. For non-household consumers (Band IC, mid-sized businesses) Malta is in the cheapest 2-3 member states. Tariffs have been frozen since 2014 via the energy-subsidy programme. The fiscal cost is large (€350-600M/year averaged) but on the consumer-price metric the claim is right.
We tested Dalli's claim against (1) Eurostat's bi-annual electricity-price series (nrg_pc_204 for households; nrg_pc_205 for non-household), (2) Enemalta tariff schedules, (3) the Maltese energy-subsidy programme documentation, and (4) Eurostat household / business electricity-price comparisons across EU-27.
True. Eurostat's bi-annual electricity-price series (Band DC, average household consumer) places Malta at €0.13/kWh in H2 2024 — the lowest or near-lowest in the EU, against an EU-27 average of ~€0.29/kWh. For non-household consumers (Band IC, mid-sized businesses), Malta is in the cheapest 2-3 member states. The headline ranking is genuine. Tariffs have been frozen since 2014 via the energy-subsidy programme; without subsidies the underlying cost would be materially higher. The fiscal cost is large (energy subsidies have averaged €350-600M/year — see #219) but on the consumer-price metric the claim is right. Limitations: 'first cheapest' for households is sensitive to revision in successive Eurostat release vintages — Malta and Hungary regularly trade the bottom positions in the household series. The 'among the lowest' framing is unambiguously correct.
Does Malta really have among the lowest energy prices in the EU
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli's headline: 'għandna fost l-inqas prezzijiet fl-Unjoni Ewropea… l-ewwel waħda għall-familji, it-tieni waħda għan-negozji.' Among the lowest in the EU — first cheapest for families, second cheapest for businesses.
What Eurostat actually shows for households
Eurostat publishes a harmonised electricity-price series for residential consumers twice a year, broken out by consumption band. The most-cited reading is Band DC (annual consumption 2,500–5,000 kWh), which captures the typical Maltese household.
Malta's residential tariff sits at roughly half the EU-27 average and roughly one-third of the most expensive EU markets (Germany, Belgium, Ireland). Hungary has been the only consistent rival for cheapest in recent vintages of the data. The 'first cheapest for households' framing has been broadly accurate across multiple semesters of Eurostat data, though the exact rank #1 vs #2 oscillates by 1pp depending on the half-year.
Non-household (business) prices
On the non-household side (Band IC, 500–2,000 MWh annual consumption — a typical mid-size business) Eurostat's H2 2024 data again places Malta in the cheapest 2-3 EU member states, with Sweden and Hungary as the other regular bottom-of-table entrants. 'Second cheapest for businesses' is broadly fair characterisation, though again the exact rank fluctuates.
What that ranking doesn't mean
The cheap household tariff is not driven by Malta's underlying electricity costs being uniquely low — Malta's wholesale generation costs (gas-CCGT plus interconnector imports plus solar) sit broadly in the EU mid-range. The cheap end-user price is driven by the energy-subsidy programme that has held tariffs frozen since 2014 despite the 2022–24 wholesale-price spike. The fiscal cost has run €350m–€600m/year, depending on wholesale price levels.
So the claim 'lowest prices in the EU' is true at the consumer-bill level. It would be misleading if read as 'Malta's electricity is intrinsically cheaper to produce' — that's not what the Eurostat data measures.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. Eurostat's residential and non-household price series both place Malta in the EU's cheapest 2-3 throughout 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 'first/second' specific ranking holds in most semesters.
Verdict: True.