They ask us for a sustainable future, encouraging us to buy electric vehicles, install solar panels, aerothermal or geothermal systems, or whatever produces energy without emitting CO2 because the planet is going to hell. To get us to part with the money, they entice us with public aid that, in theory, makes investments profitable that otherwise wouldn't be. However, behind these promises lies a bureaucratic tangle that turns aid into deception and hope into frustration.
Let's take the incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles, for example. Grants of up to 7,000 euros were announced, but the application process is complex and slow. Citizens must advance the money and wait months, even years, to receive the subsidy. There are people whose vehicles were purchased more than five years ago and still have not received the money.
The installation of solar panels is also not without its obstacles. Despite the announced subsidies, many citizens face delays in the application process and a lack of clear information. The European Next Generation funds, which should promote these installations, do not always arrive on time, and applicants must be aware of constantly changing deadlines and requirements. In some cases, the grants have been exhausted before applicants can access them.
That is, forget about receiving anything. The quota was exceeded, they tell us. Well, they should have communicated the day the aid ran out, I guess.
In the case of aerothermal energy and similar projects, grants are subject to a series of technical and administrative conditions that make them difficult to access. Applicants must present energy efficiency certificates and meet specific requirements that, in many cases, are not clearly defined. There are procedures in which you are not notified of the grant award; citizens must check official bulletins, and if they find out two weeks late, they'll lose their grants.
The aid exists on paper, but its practical implementation is riddled with obstacles. Citizens feel cheated, and in fact, it amounts to deception. There is no right. When citizens miss a deadline or receive a fine, woe betide them if they don't respond to it in the timely manner required by law. But when it comes to ensuring that citizens benefit from aid, Kafka is invoked, and a process is designed that not even the administration itself would be able to fulfill. In economics, this is called administrative asymmetry, and in moral terms, it's called fraud.
