PM to meet EC president, expected to discuss Iberian gas price cap

Portugal’s prime minister will meet on Thursday evening with the president of the European Commission in Brussels and at the meeting is expected to address the possibility of renewing the Iberian mechanism to limit the price of gas to produce electricity.

The meeting between António Costa and Ursula von der Leyen is only described as a “working meeting” and last week a European Commission spokeswoman only revealed that “everything relevant” to the community bloc and the country would be addressed.

However, on Wednesday, Portugal’s environment minister Duarte Cordeiro met with Commission vice-president and competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Brussels to discuss the extension of the Iberian mechanism that limits the price of gas purchased to produce electricity. The Socialist minister was accompanied by Teresa Ribera, the Spanish energy minister.

The meeting resulted in a “positive” sign, according to a note issued by the environment ministry, and Portugal and Spain committed to move forward with proposals as soon as possible.

The last time Costa and von der Leyen met was at the December European Council meeting, where the Portuguese prime minister defended the renewal, from May, of the Iberian mechanism that limits the price of gas in electricity production.

“From our side and from Spain, we stressed that, regardless of the fixing of this gas price correction mechanism, it is essentially to renew, as of May, the Iberian solution, […] which has not distorted the market and which has allowed Portuguese companies and companies based in Portugal and Spain – and also France, whenever they acquire energy in the Iberian Peninsula – to always have prices that are frankly more competitive than those practiced in the international market,” António Costa said at the time.