Minimum package and just what Spain has warning weeks that I did not want, it is not enough and it would be disappointing.
The European Commission has presented its Toolbox on Wednesday, a battery of ideas, suggestions, basic proposals and reminders of what can be done or should be done to try to fight against the rise of receipt of light.
Or, perhaps rather, to alleviate its effects because short-term ideas go through household support rents, state aid to affected companies or surgical taxes.
Spain, together with France, Greece and other countries asks, demands, many more “audacity and forcefulness” but can not find a receptivity.
The Government has led a not very common campaign in the EU to try to convince its partners and institutions of the need to do something unprecedented for an “unprecedented crisis”, but at the moment it does not achieve it.
In the Union there are 20 countries that have taken national measures or are going to do so, but seven have not done anything to reduce the receipt or compensate their effects.
And even among those who have moved a record, such as Germany and the Nordics, there is more concern to maintain the green transition than anything else.
It also helps to benefit indirectly cheaper coal, such as Berlin, but it is not the only reason.
Spain wanted to break the schemes.
Search options, as there were preceding legislation, to put a maximum price to the megawatt hour, which in a while could not go from 180 euros (when the real cost was close to 40) and now it moves close to 300. He wants a mechanism
Let it allow the price of the gas, which is fired throughout the continent, of the process for fixing the energy mix, an unusual dissociation but, according to Moncloa, possible.
It also seemed unimaginable to put in a coma the EU stability and growth pact, which sets 3% maximum deficit and a 60% debt, and yet it was done without problems or complaints by the pandemic.
And that would want to see Pedro Sánchez for a few months to stop the climb.
But the options are more, directly addressing a wholesale market reform, since with current legislation national governments have a limited range of action and can not intervene in fixation, by supply and demand.
“According to the current market design, gas continues to set the total price of electricity when it is deployed, since all producers receive the same price for the same product when it enters the network. There is a general consensus that the current model
Fixing marginal prices is the most efficient, but a more detailed analysis is justified, “is the most granted Brussels after the enormous pressure of these weeks.
The resistance is clear.
There is no consensus between the 27 and there is no support in the European Commission, which continues to have its green agenda as a priority.
Messages from Community Capital are that in the first quarter of 2022 the situation will calm down and prices will fall.
Not like the previous levels, especially with a cold winter, but they will fall.
They also believe that the benefits of emission markets (ETS), up to 26,300 million between August 2020 and 2021 give effective governments to alleviate the effects of rises.
They insist on measures, yes, focused on alleviating the letter from the most vulnerable homes, socially and economically.
But they do not want revolutions in a market whose composition, liberalization and reasonable homogenization has taken 25 years.
“The increase in energy prices around the world is a reason for serious concern for the EU. As we go out of the pandemic and we begin our economic recovery, it is important to protect more vulnerable consumers and support companies
. The Commission is helping Member States take immediate action to reduce the impact this winter. At the same time, we identify other measures in the medium term to ensure that our energy system is more resistant and more flexible to resist any future volatility. The situation
current is exceptional and the internal energy market has served us well for the past 20 years, “the Commissioner responsible for Energy, Kadri Simson,” but we must be sure that he will continue to do so in the future fulfilling the European Green Agreement.
, promoting our energy independence and fulfilling our climate goals, “he added this Wednesday.
The only clear element in which the proposals of Spain are collected is in the establishment of joint gas reserves. The Executive proposed, in a letter signed by the Vice Presidents Calviño and Ribera, that the EU makes with the gas the same as did with Vaccines for the Covid: joint purchases and joint storage to stop volatility in times of tensions and shock, Something that Brussels sees with good eyes, like everything that supposes give more competences and powers. Now the EU has capacities to store 20% of the gas used annually, but not all countries have facilities or capacities for this, something problematic when 90% of the supply arrives from outside and is subject to geopolitics or political decisions or Strategic of non-democratic governments. So it is advocated by exploring a path that, in any case, would be slow and would require coordination, facilities and interconnections that will not be available in the short term.
The EU College of Commissioners has pronounced in favor of measures to support the most vulnerable households, aid for companies and sectors more punished or very focused tax reductions.
But it also shows its support for investments in renewable and energy efficiency measures, while “evaluating the design of the electricity market”, a deliberately vague and open commitment.
Among the medium-term suggestions is “to ask European Energy Regulators (ACER) to study the benefits and disadvantages of the existing electricity market and propose recommendations to the Commission,” but the deadline is discouraging for the demands of the vice-president
Ribera: “When pertinent,” says the proposal presented today.
But there is nothing new in his model and there are no legislative measures, nor is he expected before the end of the year and the disappointment in Madrid is manifest and no secret.
The warnings have been repeated but not all partners see the same danger that detects Moncloa, loss of confidence in the green transition or before the possibility of systematic protests as it happened with the yellow vests in France.
The Commission has packaged a list of what can be done or what many have already done.
It does not provide money, changes in the frame, creative mechanisms.
It simply recalls that compensatory checks can be given or eliminating the burden of those social bonuses through income from the ETS market.
Or prevent, as already in many countries by law, the cuts of light or heating during the winter.
Equally, tax benefits for lower income, tightening to guarantee transparency in international markets, investigate anti-competitive behavior or facilitate the financing of renewables, although European sources explain that there have been no cases of pricing manipulation such as Suspecha Spain that have been
Produced with STDs where prices have skyrocketed and where Madrid sees suspicious movements of investment funds.
“The transition to clean energies is the best insurance against price shocks in the future and should accelerate,” has reiterated Commissioner Simson, which tomorrow will go to the European Parliament and next week will explain to the energy ministers their ideas.
The Heads of State and Government will also discuss it in depth also in a European Council at the end of next week, a meeting that is expected attempts and in which Pedro Sánchez wants to force a background debate and not just patches.
It is the only option to achieve a very aggressive spin and community approach, something that seems frankly complicated right now.