EU leaders rebuff Spain's pleas for market reform to curb electricity prices
Once again, EU leaders have dismissed Spain's impassioned pleas for market reform to curb the dramatic rise of electricity prices across the continent.
The politically explosive issue has been on the agenda for the past six months and took a turn for the worse after Russia, the bloc's main gas supplier, invaded Ukraine, sending markets trembling and inflation soaring.
The vastly different energy mixes of each member state and clashing views about market intervention put the brakes on Madrid's vigorous reforming campaign, whose divisive character laid the ground for a long and intense debate on Friday.
The meeting on energy occupied the entire second day of a EU summit in Brussels and lasted for more than nine hours, with several breaks in between.
At the end of talks, the 27 agreed to allow Spain and Portugal to introduce exceptional and temporary measures in the Iberian market, such as price caps, an instrument that, while extraordinary, falls short of the market reforms that Madrid had been pleading for.
Leaders also gave the go-ahead to a proposal from the European Commission to set up a task force for common purchases of gas ahead of next winter, following the model of the joint procurement scheme for COVID-19 vaccines.
The bloc is confident it can use its weight as an economic powerhouse to secure more favourable prices. Europe's gas consumption represents 75% of global market of pipeline gas.
"We have an enormous purchasing power. Therefore I welcome that we will now use our collective bargaining power," said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the end of the meeting.
"Instead of outbidding each other and driving prices up, we will pool our demand."
Additionally, leaders green-lighted the objective to fill up
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