Sánchez celebrates that Von der Leyen proposes reforms of the energy market that Spain has been asking for since before the war

The president sees the 'European Political Community' as a "magnificent idea" and hopes that it will be consolidated

PRAGUE, Oct. 6 (From the EUROPA PRESS Special Envoy, Leyre Guijo) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has celebrated that many of the measures now proposed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, to deal with the energy crisis coincide with what Spain had been demanding since even before the war in Ukraine.

From Prague, where today he is taking part in the first meeting of the 'European Political Community' and tomorrow in an informal European council, the president assured that "we recognize ourselves in that letter, we recognize many of the proposals that Spain has been defending for many months, even before the war".

Thus, he has cited "the fixing of a price cap on all gas imported by the EU", "joint and centralized purchases of gas from third countries", "the structural reform of the electricity market" and that "it be extended to the the whole of the EU the reality of the 'Iberian exception'".

In a speech before the plenary session of the European Parliament the day before, Von der Leyen advanced some of the keys to the proposal that he will take to the summit of heads of state and government of the European Union in Prague on Friday to continue advancing in measures that contain energy prices, skyrocketing since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Among its proposals, as already pointed out in a working document that Brussels circulated last week, highlights the idea of ​​generalizing throughout the European Union a system similar to the one known as the "Iberian exception" and which has allowed Portugal and Spain to put a cap on the price of gas used for electricity production.

The head of the Community Executive also advocates intervening in the European gas market and establishing a ceiling for the maximum price of contracts in the European reference index, the Dutch TTF (Title Transfer Facility) and, in parallel, increasing the levels of consumption savings of gas at community level through demand reduction auctions.

Thus, Sánchez has announced that Spain will defend these proposals before the rest of the members at tomorrow's meeting, in which, in addition to energy, the war in Ukraine will also be discussed and the impact it is having, among other things, on inflation.

In this sense, he celebrated the new package of sanctions against Russia adopted the day before by the Twenty-seven and which, as he said, sends "a new message of unity against the aggressor and of solidarity with Ukraine".

As regards the meeting of the 'European Political Community', which brings together 44 countries, including those of the EU and other European countries such as the United Kingdom or Turkey, he considered that it is "a magnificent idea".

The president has hoped that "this idea of ​​a community of values, which respects plurality, democracy, respect for Human Rights and an international order based on rules" will be consolidated in the coming years in the form of "intergovernmental space" .