The entire southern flank of the European Union -Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece- has come together to pressure the European Union in favor of proceeding with an intervention in the energy market that would imply putting a price cap on the megawatt of electricity and disassociating it from the price of gas.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, thus closes the most fruitful event, to date, in the European tour that he has undertaken in search of support for a plan that he himself defended months ago before the European Council.
There is still, however, the most difficult stage, the one that he will face this afternoon in Berlin with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
Sánchez has advocated giving a united response from the EU "and not 27 different ones" to the harsh impact that the war in Ukraine is already having on the Union's economy and especially in the energy field.
The President of the Government has insisted on the need to "urgently" address the rise in electricity and gas prices, which is, he said, "unaffordable" for the well-being of citizens and the competitiveness of companies.
A runaway increase in prices that "puts the recovery at risk" after the pandemic.
"Unfortunately", he stated, "we have verified that the situation is not temporary and the war has shown that only with European responses can this problem, which is European, be resolved. We have to act together and now. We are late, we should have done it before ", Sánchez pointed out, who has defined the situation as an "economic emergency".
The four countries thus work together on immediate proposals.
"We cannot wait another day to strengthen the European system and not weaken it."
"The time to act is now," she insisted.
His words collide, however, with the Government's delay in adopting measures at the national level that mitigate, at least in the short term and pending European action, the effects of the new crisis.
The Prime Minister will wait until the end of the month to present his National Shock Plan to deal with the economic consequences of the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia.
Pedro Sánchez, Mario Draghi, António Costa and Kyriakos Mitsotakis have emphasized that their proposals do not imply a weakening of the European market but they have stressed that, if it does not get under way, the rise in energy prices will be, in words, of the first Greek minister, "a real mine" on the road to economic recovery.
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