The proposal they brought this Monday Spain and Portugal to the EU Energy Council to the consequences and possible “distortions” of aid are reviewed that some European governments grant to industry pay for energyIt will stay in a drawer for now after the European Commission avoided taking up the challenge of these countries to guarantee the transparency and temporality of the subsidies that make the industry of some countries benefit from cheaper electricity prices than in others where, fundamentally, it is cheaper. On the contrary, he reminded them that measures already proposed reduce the price of electricity paid by industry, among them, lower taxes, which Spain has already rejected at the time.
The representative of the European Commission avoided expressing his commitment no one to re-examine this state aid that Spain and Portugal requested, in addition to the eight other countries who, before or during the Energy Council, spoke out in favor of this initiative. These are Finland, Ireland, Belgium, Estonia, Luxembourg, Austria, Greece, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
On the contrary, Germany avoided intervening in a debate in which Spain and Portugal took care not to isolate anyone, but which particularly highlights the aid that Berlin and also Paris which they make available to their industry, in the form of subsidies at the price they pay for energy. The French minister did indeed speak out, but to complain about the prices per tonne of CO2 and to demand “technological neutrality” which he does not appreciate, he said, in “European policies”. That is to say that France is authorized to continue producing electricity with its more than fifty nuclear power plants at a price agreed with the State.
As already highlighted in Madrid last week, the Spanish Secretary of State, Jeanne Groizardstressed that “in a context of competitiveness for the entire continent, which cannot be, What doesn’t make sense is that intra-EU competitiveness it depends on something as simple as tax margin of each country“.
“(The proposal) does not seek to question any specific scheme, but rather to review all possible formulas, structural measures that reduce energy costswhich are limited in time, temporary, concrete and include an impact analysis”, declared the Secretary of State, the same day when the European Commission state aid authorized in Spain of 408 million “to support the decarbonization of manufacturing industry”, as announced in a press release. This amount will be distributed in the form of direct grants to businesses of all sizes.
The Portuguese minister rejected the idea that it would be a question of “questioning the legitimacy” of the measures approved by Brussels, as the Commission representative then recalled, “but rather of seeking to more coordination and transparency.
Brussels is invited to lower taxes and Spain rejected it
But in response to this call from Spain, Portugal and eight other countries which support it, the European Commission avoided committing to review the national measures which were authorized as state aid and which, he recalled, They are already temporary because they can only be granted until the end of 2030. Having been authorized, they were examined closely by its Directorate General for Competition, so that “they do not distort”, underlined the Commission representative.
Furthermore, he recalled other measures and proposals that everyone could benefit from Member States, citing in particular the Affordable Energy Plan which they approved last year and which called on European governments to take measures to make electricity cheaper, notably by minimizing or eliminating taxes electricity, particularly for industry, which the Spanish government immediately rejected out of hand.
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