The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, held yesterday a meeting by videoconference with the Prime Minister of Ireland, Micheál Martin, the last stage of his round of contacts with several European leaders to address the problem of energy prices before the next European Council, to be held in Brussels on March 24 and 25.
During the interview, as reported by Moncloa, Pedro Sánchez advocated that the European Council approve, “immediately”, a common and ambitious response to curb “the unsustainable” escalation of electricity prices and to offer “protection to families, companies and industries” throughout the European Union.
The debate on the energy issue began to be addressed in September, but has taken on a new dimension with the invasion of Ukraine and the EU’s attempts to reduce and even eliminate energy dependence on Russia. The proposal that Spain has presented to the other EU member states advocates the decoupling of gas and electricity prices, joint European purchases, diversification of supply and the promotion of renewable energies.
To this end, Pedro Sánchez held meetings, since last week, with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković; the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger; the Prime Minister of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă; the Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Draghi; the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa; the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis; the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz; the President of France, Emmanuel Macron; the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo; and the aforementioned Prime Minister of Ireland. In addition, the head of the Executive took advantage of his presence in Brussels on Monday to meet with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen.
One of the strong points of these contacts, and the one that has apparently generated most consensus, is the need to diversify European energy sources through interconnections. Precisely, yesterday the Council of Ministers approved the Plan for the Development of the Electricity Transmission Network in the 2026 horizon, which includes, among other measures, an investment of 1,260 million to strengthen international interconnections with France, Morocco, Portugal and Andorra, as announced by the Third Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, at the press conference after the Council.
