Spain Covered Under the European Union to Avoid Algeria’s Sanctions

With the escalation of the crisis between Algeria and Spain due to the latter’s position on the Western Sahara issue, Madrid did not find a way to escape from expected Algerian energy sanctions, other than taking refuge in the European Union to mitigate the damage.

In this regard, the European Union has begun studying a coordination plan among its members regarding gas purchases, meaning that Brussels is the one that negotiates with the energy-exporting countries on behalf of the 27 countries of the EU, a plan that will be approved at the upcoming summit today and tomorrow.

The title of this plan, as announced by the Union, is “Joint European action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy”, to enhance energy security in the European continent and reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons coming from Russia, in light of the war raging between Russia, and Ukraine supported by European countries and with them the United States of America.

This strategy is inspired by the requests for “Covid 19” vaccines tried by the European Commission, which was described as successful, and aims to diversify the sources of energy supplies in the European Union, to isolate Moscow after it invaded Ukraine, Brussels wants to reduce by two-thirds its purchases of Russian gas this year.

According to the agenda of the European summit, the leaders of the 27 member states must pledge to “work together on joint purchases of gas and hydrogen”, in what appeared to be an effort to protect the target countries in their energy sources.

To this end, the European Commission is preparing, as reported by Agence France-Presse, “to set up a working group on common procurement at the EU level. By collecting orders, it will facilitate contact with international suppliers before the coming winter and help in obtaining preferential prices, thanks to the economic weight of the European Union bloc”.

The committee, which will be tasked with purchasing gas from representatives of member states, includes, and according to the draft project, “the working team will negotiate under the leadership of the commission with suppliers and pave the way for future partnerships in the field of energy other than gas.”

Algeria is at the top of the countries that will be negotiated with by the European Commission, as it is one of the main gas producing and exporting countries, along with Norway, the United States and Qatar. In this regard, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met last Monday, with heads of major European energy groups, such as the German “Eon”, the Dutch multinational “Royal Dutch Shell”, the Swedish multinational “Vattenfall”, the Italian “Eni” and the French “Total Energy”, to study the horizons of future cooperation.

Among the decisions taken by the European summit is a binding decision for member states to fill their gas reserves to “at least 80% of their capacity by November 1, 2022, and then to 90% before each winter in the following years, taking into account precise intermediate goals, up to October.

As operators of storage facilities, which will be certified by independent bodies, are committed to reporting the filling levels to the relevant authorities of each country, with a monthly report submitted to the commission, in exchange for encouraging a 100% reduction in transportation fees before filling. The Commission has also presented various options to mitigate the impact of the increasing energy prices for consumers, including setting a price ceiling, proposals that remain subject to the approval of Member States.

These measures come at a time when Algerian-Spanish relations are experiencing a severe crisis due to Madrid’s position on the Western Sahara issue, which was a direct reason for Algeria’s decision to raise gas prices in the period between 2022 and 2024, according to Spanish media.