Spain does not want to support the EU’s gas emergency plan. This was announced by Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera on Wednesday. According to Ribera, the EU proposal came about without properly involving the countries. Portugal also firmly rejects the plans.
Shortly after the EU unveiled the gas emergency plan, Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said Spain would not support the proposal. This is reported by the news agency Reuters. In Portugal, too, there is resistance to the EU’s energy saving plans. Portuguese Energy Minister Joao Galamba told the Expresso newspaper that his country was “absolutely opposed” to the disproportionate and unsustainable EU proposal.
In particular, this does not address the special hydropower needs of Spain and Portugal. Because of the current drought, both countries are forced to generate more electricity from gas-fired power plants.
Spain, which is independent of Russian gas, also said on Wednesday that the EU proposal would be rejected. The reason: the countries were not consulted. The EU regulation must be approved by a strong majority of EU countries. On Friday, the diplomats plan to meet and discuss with a view to approving the proposal at an emergency meeting of energy ministers on July 26.
“I deeply regret to say that Spain does not support this proposal,” Ribera said at a meeting in Madrid. “We believe that the proposal was drawn up without prior general debate in the European Council. Even if the economic consequences are particularly important – nobody can demand sacrifices without first having obtained an opinion,” said Ribera.
Background: In the event of a gas emergency, EU states should be able to be forced to save gas according to the will of the European Commission. Specifically, the Brussels authority proposed on Wednesday that binding reduction targets should be possible if not enough is saved voluntarily. First of all, the EU countries should voluntarily do everything they can to reduce their consumption in the coming months by 15 percent compared to the average of the past five years.
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