The executive is finalizing the decision, which will be approved in an extraordinary council on Friday, though households won’t notice it on receipts until June
The European Commission has approved the proposal from Spain and Portugal to limit the price of gas on the wholesale market in order to moderate the electricity price paid by 10 million households covered by the regulated tariff. The approval, on a provisional basis, comes a month and a half after grueling negotiations between the two countries, before they presented the final text to Brussels last Friday, adapted to Community law and the requirements of the rest of the European partners.
Now it is the Council of Ministers that must approve the decree that lays down the conditions and technical details of a measure that will be much more complex than it apparently implies: cap the price of gas on the wholesale market at 40 euros/MWh in a first moment, in order to reach EUR 50/MWh for the remainder of the period, for a maximum period of twelve months. By limiting this reference, the price of the electricity pool could fall to around 130 or 140 euros/MWh, compared to the more than 200 euros/MWh in which it has been moving in recent weeks. The bill would be reduced by 35%.
Government sources indicate that it would be this Friday when an extraordinary Council of Ministers was to be held to approve the measure, given the upward trend in prices continues. The Department of Ecological Transition “continues to work to take it in as soon as possible,” Executive sources say. One of the details that are not yet known is the financing of the measure. From within the ministry, they choose to “share the cost”, meaning the free market rates are increased when they are extended.
In any case, users of the regulated market (PVPC) will not notice the effects of the measure until well into June. The billing cycles of the electricity companies that will expire in the coming days will hardly be able to absorb the foreseeable moderation in the electricity price and it will not be until next month when the first effects of the measure will be noticeable, although the Commission hopes that the text would be ready by the beginning of May. are, a circumstance that ultimately was not possible.
The limitation of light has cost many negotiations between the member states of the European Union, especially until the last European Council in late March, in which Spain and Portugal fought to apply their ‘Iberian exceptionalism’. Pedro Sánchez and António Costa argued that they could limit the gas price without disrupting the common energy market, as connections from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of the continent were minimal, barely 3%.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
