Spain will ask Brussels to increase the Iberian exception past December 31 | Economy | EUROtoday

Everything, completely every little thing, remains to be ready for the investiture. But some power unknowns are starting to maneuver into the realm of certainties: the long run Executive of Pedro Sánchez will ask Brussels for an extension of the Iberian exception past December 31, in keeping with the sources consulted by this newspaper. Before, nevertheless, the European Council should give its approval – expectedly, on the finish of that month, and after evaluation by the Commission – to the extension of the framework of emergency measures following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, during which This extraordinary measure is framed. Something that Spain, which is speeding the ultimate phases of the rotating presidency, strongly helps.

The Iberian mechanism, also referred to as the gasoline cap, has been inactive for the reason that finish of February as a consequence of a double mixture of things: the sharp drop within the value of this gasoline within the wholesale market and, extra lately, the gradual rise within the gasoline value threshold. from which it comes into power. The Iberian exception, due to this fact, has nothing to do with the current decreasing of electrical energy costs, guided solely and completely by the very excessive renewable technology. Above all, wind.

The Spanish authorities, nevertheless, don’t need to quit a software that they imagine might be very helpful if the worth of this gasoline rises once more, particularly after the nervousness unleashed by the struggle between Israel and Hamas. A risk that’s on no account sure, however that, with two struggle conflicts open on the doorways of the EU and a rising dependence on LNG (the gasoline that travels by ship and whose conduct is far more risky), nobody dares both. to discard.

If subsequent month the Council offers the inexperienced gentle to the extension of the bundle of emergency measures to alleviate the social and financial penalties of the power disaster, the Spanish authorities will convey to Brussels their intention to proceed a scheme that – in keeping with their calculations — has allowed shoppers financial savings of 5,000 million euros within the lengthy half-year during which it was lively. It will then be when the categorical negotiation between the three events concerned begins: Madrid, Lisbon and the European Commission, to which the final phrase corresponds.

Sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge emphasize that the mechanism – which they describe as a “protective shield” – has “stabilized the electricity futures markets, reduced consumers’ electricity bills and benefited the rest of the economy. especially containing inflation.” Although it has not been utilized since February, they emphasize, “it continues to act as insurance against price spikes that, fortunately, are not being recorded.” The Government’s intention is, due to this fact, to ensure the continuity of this highly effective firewall that the remainder of the Member States, besides Portugal, lack.

Official calculations level to a mean lower of 18% within the wholesale market for the reason that first day that the exception was utilized, June 14, 2022. The most financial savings in comparison with the worth that may have resulted with out the gasoline cap occurred in December final 12 months, when it was round 36%. The affect was additionally transferred to the sphere of macroeconomics: in keeping with information from the Bank of Spain, in 2022 it diminished inflation by 5 tenths final 12 months and allowed Spain to separate itself from the remainder of the big European nations.

In Brussels, there isn’t any scarcity of those that see it as logical for Spain and Portugal to take the step of requesting an extension. Some shut observers of this measure are conscious that it has labored regardless of preliminary misgivings. It could be, they are saying, a form of “just in case”, to forestall – ​​in an atmosphere of nice geopolitical uncertainty – a possible new escalation of gasoline from being transmitted on to the electrical energy market, experiences Manuel V. Gomez. So they do not see it with unhealthy eyes. But they should examine the small print.

The mechanism was already prolonged as soon as, on the finish of April, in order that its scope of utility would attain the tip of 2023. Then, nevertheless, the Community Executive set a schedule of will increase in its activation threshold: it has been rising since 40 preliminary euros per megawatt hour (MWh) within the Iberian gasoline market, as much as nearly 64 euros at present and 65 subsequent month. Today, this gasoline is priced at lower than 35 euros, so its activation stays distant.

At the time, to obtain authorization from Brussels, the 2 Iberian nations claimed – above all – their power isolation from the remainder of the continent. “The Iberian Peninsula has a very specific situation,” stated the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in March of final 12 months, when she gave the inexperienced gentle to the creation of this exception. “They have a high percentage of renewables, and that is very good, but very few interconnections. That is why we agree on this special treatment.” At one level, final autumn, the Community Executive even thought-about extending the measure to the remainder of the member states, an concept that was lastly discarded regardless of the nice ends in Spain and Portugal.

10 days in the past, the third vp and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, was brazenly in favor of extending the emergency bundle with which the Twenty-seven have confronted the financial penalties of the struggle, and which is the authorized umbrella within the one during which the Iberian exception is registered. “My natural inclination is that, given that they have not generated distortions and have worked well, all the measures enabled to date are extended as long as necessary,” she stated within the European Parliament. Eliminating them, she added, “would be a signal to the markets that we might regret.”

Follow all the knowledge Economy y Business in Facebook y Xor in our publication semanal

_