“It’s a directive that is very complex […], with several stages of transposition. We are doing as much as possible […], and we will try to complete it in two months,” stated the Minister of Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho, during a ministerial meeting in Brussels, Belgium, where the main institutions of the European Union (EU) are located.
The minister, who previously served as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for this directive, noted that “there is a part that requires authorization from the European Commission,” concerning the possibility of “state aid.”
“The European Commission also takes much longer than two months [to respond],” added the Minister of Environment.
Today, the European Commission urged Portugal and 25 other EU countries, all except Denmark, to adopt the new electricity market design rules within two months, a process that should have been completed by January.
“The European Commission decided today to initiate infringement procedures, sending letters of formal notice to 26 member states,” including Portugal, “for not having fully transposed into national law certain provisions” of the directive related to improving the EU’s electricity market configuration, adopted previously, according to a statement from the institution.
The statement highlighted that the 27 EU countries were required to notify the transposition of the directive by January 17, 2025, except for provisions regarding the free choice of supplier and energy sharing, for which they have until July 17, 2026. The European Commission noted that only Denmark met the legal deadline for adoption.
