On a Thursday in late March, Ymer Fejzullahu, the director of Kosovo’s energy regulator ERO, was hit with a cake decorated with the number ‘15’, just as he was stepping into his car.

“This is from the citizens - 15 per cent for you,” said the cake-thrower, an activist of the Asnje Cent me Shume [Not Another Cent] movement.

The stunt was a response to a proposal to raise the price of electricity by 15 per cent, a move that has not gone down well with businesses and ordinary consumers who are already struggling to make ends meet.

More public discontent about the price rise was visible on April 2, when police arrested 12 activists who staged a protest at the offices of ERO.

ERO says the price rise - due to be backdated to the start of the month after it is confirmed on April 11 - is an inevitable result of rising demand, a lack of local production and a rise in the price of imported energy on international markets.

Furthermore, ERO said, “because most countries in the region are net importers, cross-border networks are often overloaded. This leads to increased prices for using cross-border lines for imports”.

Besides the price hike, from June 1 businesses with more than 50 employees or more than 10 million euros in turnover will have to select their electricity supplier on the open market, most likely leading to an increase in the price they pay for electricity, which risks being passed onto consumers.