Pedro Sánchez underlines that the EU-27 have taken key decisions in the fight against the energy crisis

Brussels (Belgium)

Sánchez, on energy, underlined that, despite Spain having "greater ambition" on some issues, the agreements reached by the 27 are very positive.

The President of the Government of Spain reaffirmed that "Spain is playing a leading role in many of the measures agreed by the EU. In fact, for some time now Spain has been making proposals which, although initially received with scepticism, are now enjoying shared recognition and we welcome this. We must now work quickly so that these proposals can be adopted in the near future.

On energy, the leaders have agreed to limit the price of gas, a move that Spain, along with other member states, has been advocating for months. The leaders also agreed to come up with concrete proposals to cap the price of gas used for power generation for the EU-27. To this effect, Sánchez underlined that "we are going to work together on measures to extend the Iberian model, or something similar, to the rest of the EU, a mechanism that has already saved our consumers €2.9 billion".

Also on this issue, the heads of state and government have agreed on the joint purchase of gas, an initiative that Spain has been pressing for since the beginning of the energy price crisis. "This is something that Spain looks favourably on, and not only in the short term but also in the long term," the President of the Government of Spain stated. The European Commission has also been asked to speed up work on a structural reform of the electricity market, another of the initiatives put forward by Spain.

Regarding the economic implications of the energy crisis, the 27 debated the need to coordinate common economic responses, a proposal shared by Spain, which defends common instruments based on previous experiences such as SURE and the 'NextGenerationEU' funds.

On Putin's war, the 27 Member States condemned Russia's new escalation of attacks and reiterated their unity and firm determination to continue assisting Ukraine in all fields: political, humanitarian, financial and military. In this regard, the leaders discussed the extension of military support, with the approval of €500 million in the European Peace Facility, and the creation of a Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine.

The heads of state or government also addressed the food insecurity resulting from Putin's war. "I want to be clear: Putin, and Putin alone, with the war he has unleashed and his instrumentalisation of food are the cause of this situation," stressed Sánchez. Spain is a strong supporter of the 'Solidarity Corridors' which, for example, allowed 600 tonnes of grain from Ukraine to reach Barcelona by train a few days ago.

The other topic on which the 27 focused was the EU's external relations, including the upcoming EU-ASEAN summit and relations with China. The leaders also prepared for the two international meetings that will take place in the coming weeks: the COP-27 on climate hosted by Egypt, and the COP-15 on biodiversity to be held in Canada.

Spain, a pioneer in the development of solutions to energy problems

Yesterday, before the start of the European Council, the President of the Government of Spain, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, reached a historic agreement to work on the new green energy corridor project, which will link the Iberian Peninsula with France via an interconnection from Barcelona to Marseille.

"This is excellent news, not only for France, Portugal and Spain, but for Europe as a whole," Sánchez stressed, given that it is a solution that is fully compatible with the ecological transition and Spain's commitment to green energy. With this initiative, which reinforces the Government of Spain's strategic green hydrogen project, Spain's energy will be placed at the service of the EU's needs at a transcendental moment and, at the same time, Spain will increase its interconnections to cease to be an energy island.

President Sánchez also held a bilateral meeting with Costa yesterday to start working on a second pillar of the Iberian solution: an electricity storage reserve on the Iberian Peninsula. Once again, like the other initiatives put forward by the Government of Spain in recent months, this project could be extended to the rest of the EU in the future to help alleviate global energy problems.

Non official translation