On Monday, a new report from Brussels-based think tank Bruegel revealed that European nations have spent almost €800 billion ($855 billion) on energy subsidies as the region’s economies continue to be battered by high energy costs.

The report recommended that states target their spending more precisely as they subsidize energy bills for homes and businesses, after a year of wildly volatile energy costs which saw both crude and natural gas hit record highs.

So far, the data presented by Bruegel’s researchers shows that EU member states have allocated €681 billion to energy subsidies since September 2021. On top of that, the UK and Norway have earmarked about the equivalent of €103 billion and €8.1 billon, respectively.

The €792 billion total is an almost €86 billion increase in spending since Bruegel’s last report, released in November. Bruegel researchers say the rise is due to the region’s need to continue to purchase highly priced supplies through the winter, even as the market was tightened by the refusal of EU member states to purchase cheaper fuel from Russia, due to the conflict in Ukraine.

In the report, the biggest spender was Germany, with roughly €270 billion, while the UK, Italy and France, the next highest spenders, each spent almost €150 billion each. Most other EU states spent far less. However on a per capita basis, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Germany were the biggest spenders.

The report was released amid a growing debate in Europe over whether the bloc should ease state spending rules even further when looking at green energy projects, as the region begins to see itself hampered in competing with the subsidies being offered to green energy projects in America through the Inflation Reduction Act.

The think tank warned the bloc that the non-targeted aid employed so far risked wastefulness, and it urged the member states to more precisely target their aid in the future. It noted the state reserves being drawn upon for the present aid are growing thinner, and cannot be spent so wantonly in the future.

Bruegel analyst Giovanni Sgaravatti said, “Instead of price-suppressing measures that are de facto fossil fuels subsidies, governments should now foster more income-support policies targeted towards the lowest two quintiles of the income distribution and towards strategic sectors of the economy.”