According to the European Commission, adequate warmth, cooling, lighting and the energy to power appliances are essential services needed to guarantee a decent standard of living and citizen’s health. Lack of access to these energy services is associated with a range of adverse consequences for people’s health and wellbeing including respiratory and cardiac illnesses, and mental health, exacerbated due to low temperatures and stress associated with unaffordable energy bills. Moreover, adequate access to energy services will bring multiple benefits in form of enhanced social inclusions as well as increased economic activity. Energy poverty is currently experienced by more than 50 million households in the European Union. In line with Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, European Commission identified energy poverty as its policy priority in the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, adopted in November 2016. Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights states: “Everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water, sanitation, energy, transport, financial services and digital communications.” The creation of the EU Energy Poverty Observatory is part of European Commission’s effort to address energy poverty across EU countries. The Observatory aims to:  improve transparency (by bringing together the disparate sources of data and knowledge),  support informed decision making at local, regional and national level by providing a user-friendly and open-access resource that will promote public engagement on the issue of energy poverty,  enable networking and facilitate knowledge sharing,  disseminate information and organise outreach work,  provide technical assistance to the widest possible range of interested parties. According to Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, the launch of the Energy Poverty Observatory marks an important milestone in our struggle for a more just, solidary, and inclusive Europe. The gLAWcal Team