Iberian capitals approve gas price ceiling on Friday
"We hope to be able to approve it simultaneously in Portugal and Spain this Friday and immediately transmit it to the European Commission," said the Spanish minister of ecological transition.
The Spanish minister of ecological transition said on Wednesday that Lisbon and Madrid hope to approve “simultaneously” on Friday in their respective cabinet meetings the mechanism to limit the price of gas for electricity production.
“We hope to be able to approve it simultaneously in Portugal and Spain this Friday and immediately transmit it to the European Commission, which must adopt a decision of the College of Commissioners for the mechanism to come into force,” Teresa Ribera explained today in a plenary session of the Spanish parliament.
The government official welcomed the fact that the two countries had achieved “a change in European policies” at the end of April and that since then, Lisbon and Madrid have been working on the “technical details” of the new mechanism, which “can sometimes be a little complex”.
On Tuesday, Spanish government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said that Madrid would approve the proposal to Brussels “next Friday in an extraordinary cabinet meeting”.
Isabel Rodríguez referred at the time to the most critical aspects of the new mechanism, considering it a “significant” agreement that will benefit not only Spanish consumers by reducing their electricity bills “by up to 30%” but also their “Portuguese neighbours”.
“It will be approved this week […]. We will do it next Friday in an extraordinary cabinet meeting,” the Spanish government spokeswoman added.
At the end of April, the governments of Portugal and Spain reached a political agreement in Brussels with the European Commission to establish a temporary mechanism that will allow the average price of gas to be set at €50 per MWh.
This measure will temporarily decouple gas and electricity prices in the Iberian Peninsula, which will benefit from an exception, as agreed at the March European Council.
The mechanism is expected to last for around 12 months and set the average gas price at about €50 per megawatt, against the current market reference price of €90, starting at €40.
In the current European market configuration, gas determines the overall electricity price when used since all producers receive the same price for the same product – electricity – when it enters the grid.
