The European Commission has maintained this Friday that the extension of the limit to the gas that Spain and Portugal enjoy cannot be extended beyond December 2023. The institution of the European Union has justified this response in that it is at this moment when The deadline set for the support measures for the war in Ukraine is coming to an end, so while the Community countries do not modify this margin, the Iberian countries must abide by this date as the limit for the ‘Iberian exception’.
The mechanism comes to an end in June, since it meets the twelve-month period in which it was to be in force. Spain’s intention was to extend it until the end of 2024 if the electricity market reform was not carried out before this date. However, the European competition commissioner has stopped him. The head of Competition, Margrethe Vestager, spoke to the Third Vice President of the Government and Minister of Ecological Transition and for the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, and the Minister of the Environment and Climate Action of Portugal, Duarte Cordeiro, at their meeting this Wednesday, according to what diplomatic sources have confirmed to Europa Press.
Although on January 9 Minister Ribera announced her intention to request an extension of the ‘Iberian solution’ until May 2024, the same sources assure that Spain accepts the Brussels proposal as “very reasonable” and, likewise, Portugal he acknowledges that it would work for them too. The Spanish ministry had conditioned its extension on the reform of the electricity market, but during his visit to Barcelona Macron pointed out that he expected this to happen in 2023, so both scenarios could coincide with what was initially proposed by Ribera.
The ‘Iberian exception’, which has been applied in Spain and Portugal since June 15, is a mechanism that caps the price of gas for electricity generation in order to lower the price of electricity. During the first six months of this measure, the price of gas was capped at 40 euros/MWh and from there, it increases by five euros/MWh per month until May, when its validity ends and it will reach 70 euros/MWh . The Spanish ministry has transferred to the European Commission that its will is that in the months of extension of the mechanism, the ceiling does not exceed 50 euros.
