Spain aims for electricity market reform deal during EU Council stint

(EurActiv, 3 Apr 2023) Spain will seek a deal on the EU’s proposed power market reform during its six-month EU Council presidency ending on 31 December, a less hurried timetable than that of the European Commission.

“I guess we should reach a political agreement during the Spanish Presidency by the end of the year,” said Teresa Ribera, Spain’s minister for ecological transition, at an event organised last week (28 March) by the Financial Times newspaper.

Ribera’s comments came after a meeting of the EU’s Energy Council in Brussels where the bloc’s 27 energy ministers debated the European Commission’s proposed electricity market reform presented two weeks before.

The Commission’s proposal seeks to lower electricity bills, which went through the roof last summer after Moscow turned off gas supplies to Europe in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia for its military aggression in Ukraine.

As part of the EU’s response, Brussels tabled a reform of electricity market rules that placed greater emphasis on long-term contracts with renewable energy producers, a move aimed at providing guaranteed revenues for investors and more stable prices for consumers.

“The current framework gives too much weight and importance to short-term markets,” which are “volatile by definition”, Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, who opened the event with a video address, said.

External link

EurActiv, 3 Apr 2023: Spain aims for electricity market reform deal during EU Council stint