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Spain advocates for reactivating the Iberian exception in future crises

by AI | 17.Mar 2025 | Europe in brief AI

The third vice president of the Government of Spain urges to apply the lessons learned from the energy crisis resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine to the current context.

The third vice president of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of the Government of Spain, Sara Aagesen, during a control session in the Senate, on March 11, 2025, in Madrid (Spain). Photo: Diego Radamés / Europa Press

Brussels – The Third Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition of the Government of Spain, Sara Aagesen, advocated this Monday in Brussels for reactivating the measure adopted by Spain and Portugal when the war in Ukraine broke out to decouple electricity prices from gas prices, known as the Iberian exception, in the face of future crisis situations, as it is an “agile” mechanism now endorsed by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

Aagesen thus defended a “rapid activation mechanism” that allows for an “agile” response and “protects citizens and the industrial productive fabric” in the face of future crisis situations, as the Iberian exception did in its time, but also at the community level.

This initiative by Spain and Portugal to reduce electricity prices in the electricity market by subsidizing part of the cost of inputs for fossil fuel-powered power plants received the support of European Justice last week, which endorsed its “appropriate and proportionate” nature.

“We have received it with great joy and we believe that these types of instruments must also be those that can be used in times of crisis at the European level,” highlighted the Third Vice President, who quantified the savings that the Iberian exception meant for Spanish consumers as above 5,100 million euros.

She also urged applying the lessons learned from the energy crisis derived from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine to the current context and linking security and defense with the EU’s need to address the climate emergency and high energy prices. (March 17)