Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights highlights that everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality.

It provides a non-exhaustive list of these services, which includes:

• water
• sanitation
• energy
• transport
• digital communications
• financial services.

These services fulfil basic human needs and are key to well-being and social inclusion, especially for disadvantaged groups.

They also allow access to other enabling services that are key for active participation in society and the labour market, such as:

• early childhood education and care
• education and training
• healthcare
• long-term care
• social inclusion services

Supporting access to essential services can contribute to achieving the EU target of lifting at least 15 million people out of poverty and social exclusion by 2030 and is key to ensuring that the green and digital transitions are fair and inclusive.

Challenges

While the majority of the population in the EU has access to essential services, people at risk of poverty or social exclusion and the most marginalised face the greatest barriers in accessing such services.

The most important barriers are for energy, followed by digital communications, transport, and water and sanitation.

Affordability can constitute an important barrier to equal access. Households at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion tend to spend around 60% more of their budget on essential services which makes price increases a significant factor that can make essential services difficult to afford.

This affects in particular people in the most vulnerable situations, who often have to rely on income support to afford these services or have to partially renounce using them.

Availability and accessibility also pose challenges to access, sometimes linked to other barriers, such as lack of skills or geographical factors (the urban–rural divide, remote and insular regions).

The lack of infrastructure or gaps in availability relate mainly to water and sanitation for specific territories and marginalised communities, such as Roma. Living in rural areas or remote regions usually implies access to fewer transport services and a lower quality of broadband services.

Physical and online accessibility is mostly a concern regarding transport, financial services and digital communications, and particularly affects persons with disabilities and older people.

Low skills and insufficient knowledge are a barrier specific to digital communications and financial services.

Access to essential services also usually requires a fixed address, which represents a specific barrier for homeless people. Inequality and discrimination can contribute to all these barriers.

Policy response

Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights  underscores everyone’s right to access essential services and calls for the provision of support for those in need to access such services.

As announced in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the Commission has published in June 2023 the first-ever report on "Access to Essential Services in the EU" which sheds light on the structural challenges that vulnerable groups face in using such services and outline existing national and EU-wide measures supporting access.

Member States organise the provision of essential services at national, regional or local level.

There is however a significant variation among Member States in how access is supported, measures include:

• income support and reduced tariffs;
• minimum provisions and protection from disconnection;
• counselling and skills programmes;
• home renovation schemes prioritising the most vulnerable;

Social protection measures also play an important role, notably  minimum income schemes and housing benefits, also for eligibility.

For its part, the EU also supports access to essential services:

• through its various funds (e.g. European Social Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Recovery Resilience Facility);
• as well as through sectoral policies and legislation, which include consumer protection measures, public procurement practices and provisions on 'Universal Service Obligation' (USO).

Work on further measures in the area is undertaken by the Social Protection Committee. The Commission also cooperates with Member States through the European Semester.