“Iberian Front” against EU austerity plans: Portugal and Spain angry

“means not to stay up”
Spain and Portugal upset over EU austerity plan

07/22/2022, 12:58 pm

The EU leadership fears a collapse of the gas and is trying to pressure member states to save the energy source. Portugal finds the proposals “sustainable”. Similar vowels come from Spain. It is still about pro forma voluntary measures.

The neighboring Iberian countries of Spain and Portugal oppose the EU Commission’s proposal forcing union member states to reduce consumption during the heating season by 15 percent in the event of a gas emergency. The Portuguese government cannot accept the proposal at all because it is “sustainable”, Joo Galamba, the Secretary of State for Environment and Energy, said in an interview with the newspaper “Publico”. “We consume gas out of absolute necessity,” he assured.

A day earlier, the Spanish minister for ecological change, Teresa Ribera, complained: “We cannot make any sacrifices that we have not been asked about.” She emphasized: “Unlike other countries, we Spaniards have not lived beyond our means when it comes to energy consumption.” The famous Spanish newspaper “El Pais” spoke of the “Iberian Front” against the plans of the Brussels authorities.

The European Union is preparing for a possible gas crisis. Presenting the emergency plan, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said: “We have to be prepared for a complete disruption of Russian gas supplies.”

Notably, the EU Commission proposed on Wednesday that a binding reduction target should be possible if there is not enough left. EU countries must initially do everything on a voluntary basis to reduce their consumption in the coming months by 15 percent compared to the average of the previous five years.

The proposed law states that EU states are free to choose appropriate measures on their own. So how exactly the savings are done on the consumer side is not specified. However, there is a great possibility that citizens will have to save on gas as well. However, the draft regulation insists that so-called protected customers must be supplied “uninterruptedly”.