“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”.