The European Commission alleges that before final approval it must guarantee that the decree is “not contrary to the common interest”.

Two months have passed since the government’s president, Pedro Sánchez, together with his Portuguese counterpart, Antonio Costa, made this solemn announcement: “From today we will be able to implement extraordinary and time-limited measures to reduce prices. ” both announced that The European Council had agreed to give an “Iberian exception” so that it could establish a cap on the price of gas used for electricity. And thus reduce receipts for families and companies.

still, There is still no final approval from the European Commission that allows the decrees of Spain and Portugal to be implemented. Which, by the way, they could not accept until the 13th, because the two Iberian countries had great differences on how to do it. What happens to a problem so urgent for citizens like the cost of electricity?

“It’s normal. Heads of state and government reach a political agreement, in which case allowing Spain and Portugal to change the rules, and then ask the European Commission to resolve it technically. And it is not easy,” says one of the many members of the European Commission, who attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, led by President Ursula von der Leyen.

One of the attendees is the Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermann, who tells everyone who asked him in Davos, including Sanchez himself, that changing the pricing system of the European market so that gas does not contaminate the rest of the energy sources is too complicated, because It is “a system that has been in place for 30 years” and touching it can have very adverse effects that the taxpayer ends up paying., Timmerman matches in the forum with Spanish businessmen who criticize interference in the market, such as Iberdrola’s president, Ignacio Galán.

Subject

The third vice-president, Teresa Ribera, who is also in Davos, does not give a final approval date, nor has a spokesperson for the European Commission consulted. No one doubts that the Iberian exception will be approved, but the content may be less than one that the government has already had to soften in order to gain the community’s approval.

,The purpose of the law is to allow Spain and Portugal to adopt proportional measures and temporary to face exceptionally high electricity price levels, while maintaining the impetus for a sustainable energy transition and preserving the integrity and benefits of the single market, without restrictions on cross-border flows”, a spokesman for the Commission Is said.

According to this newspaper, this last point without any restrictions means that Spain will give France an energy subsidy equal to more than a billion. But there are further objections and that the European Commission wants to analyze the coherence of the last 13 May decree with Ribeira’s other previous one in which it imposed other types of sanctions on the power sector.

“The commission is committed to completing its assessment expeditiously,” the spokesperson said simply without giving a date. And remember that it requires that what Brussels approves are “legally sound decisions” that oppose attack in court and “guarantees that they do not affect commercial situations in a dimension contrary to the general interest.” Huh.” Ribera acknowledged that the approved decree, if it is not filed further in Brussels, would reduce electricity by an average of 15% for a year, due to a surcharge that would apply to the bill to compensate gas companies.

Sanchez will meet with Antonio Costa in Moncloa this Thursday, just two months after the joint announcement.