“I believe that there will be conditions to be approved by
the [Energy] Council of 30 September, but there are other aspects that are
lacking in terms of energy and on which some work needs to be done”, declared
the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Tiago Antunes, speaking in
statements to Portuguese journalists in Brussels at the end of a General
Affairs Council.
Following the statement from the Prime Minister, António
Costa, that Portugal will support the European Commission’s proposal to tax the
extraordinary profits of energy companies by at least 33%, Tiago Antunes
pointed out that Portugal has a “generic position of support for this
proposal”, although he argues that “there are issues to be discussed regarding
their implementation”.
“As for the concrete design of these measures, […] for
Portugal it is important to guarantee flexibility of the Member States in the
application of this mix of measures, ensuring compliance with the global
objectives that the European Commission aims to achieve with this proposal for
a regulation, while maintaining some flexibility because, for example, we
already have an Iberian mechanism in place, which has proven to be successful
in reducing electricity costs”, he said.
Tiago Antunes estimates that, at the European Council at the
end of October, “this proposal for a regulation that is under discussion will
be, by that time, fully approved and in force”.
I thought Costa had (predictably) ruled out imposing a windfall tax on energy companies in Portugal!? Funny how the most corrupt countries linger on the margins of the EU, where they are forgotten/ignored by the egotistical Germans and French.
By Marco from Alentejo on 22 Sep 2022, 17:30