The Government is one step closer to achieving one of its priority objectives within the Spanish Presidency of the European Council: sealing the reform of the community electricity market before December. The Twenty-seven reached a general agreement this Tuesday, with the only vote against Hungary, which opens the way to start this Friday the so-called triloguesas the negotiation between deputies and governments with the technical assistance of the European Commission is known.
“It has been a successful Energy Council,” said the Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simpson, who thanked the role of Teresa Ribera, acting vice president of the Spanish Government, who has led the negotiations between the 27. Simpson has described the document consensus as “balanced”, although it has recognized that there are still technical doubts about possible “distortions of competition” between member states.
A priori, the big obstacle to sealing a rapprochement between the 27 was the issue of contracts for differences (CFDs in the jargon). These are mechanisms that allow intervention in energy prices, similar to Spanish renewable auctions. In them, a certain price is agreed upon and, if the market closes below it, the producer is compensated for the difference, hence the name.
The big clash at this point has been between Spain, Germany and France. The latter wanted financial support for nuclear energy to be included in these CFDs, something that neither Germany nor Spain conceived of at first, as they were inclined to limit this mechanism to renewable energy. The recent agreement led by Ribera, however, has admitted the French claim regarding atomic energy, always “under the subsequent supervision of the Commission”within the framework of Community state aid regulations.
As a result of the agreement, which has yet to be debated between parliamentary institutions, French nuclear energy will be more competitive in terms of price. Although this “sacrifice” on the part of Spain has already raised eyebrows among the national electricity companies, the truth is that otherwise carrying out an agreement with such a consensus would have been almost impossible.