The Basque Government has shown understanding with Repsol's decision to leave some investments in Euskadi on standby "until there is regulatory stability." The energy company's decision, confirmed by the president of Petronor and advisor to Repsol, Emiliano López Atxurra, "is not good news either for Euskadi or for the European Union as a whole," in the opinion of the Basque Executive, which, however, , “understands” this positioning and shows, once again, his disagreement with the measure.
The Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government, Arantxa Tapia, has been the one who has transferred the position of the Urkullu Executive.
As he has indicated, any company "values regulatory stability and legal certainty", and has warned that if one of the aspects that led to a "problem" in the Iberian Peninsula in the past were regulatory problems in the generation of solar energy, "at this time one of the most relevant factors for the development of wind energy is the security and regulation it needs."
"Just as relevant as the objectives is how we are going to do it. Regulatory security and legal security are essential factors to be able to carry it out," he insisted.
In any case, Tapia has stressed that, as announced by the president of Petronor and director of Repsol, the investments would only be on 'stand by', so he has trusted that this "security" will be achieved and end up carrying forward.
The decision would affect an investment of around 200 million euros to start up a 100 MW electrolyzer at the Petronor refinery, as well as the project for an industrial synthetic fuels plant in the Port of Bilbao.
The position of the Basque Government, specifically of one of its Jeltzal advisors, is expressive of the discomfort within the PNV due to the content of part of the PSOE-Sumar agreement for the investiture.
The Basque nationalists already pointed out last week that some of the agreed proposals not only are not part of their agenda, but also conflict with it.
“We insist on the complexity of the investiture due to the number of agents it involves and that, precisely for this reason, we must be very careful in the agreements and not impose our own agendas that may clash with those of others,” they indicated.
The PNV, in fact, criticized “the misnamed taxes on banking and energy,” and noted that “they must respect the system of Economic Concert and Agreement.”
The Jeltzales consider that these measures will harm Basque industrial policy and, specifically, Petronor, one of the main contributors to the Bizkaia Treasury. The Repsol subsidiary is, in addition, one of the companies most involved in the projects linked to the Next Generation Funds in Euskadi and one of the legs on which the Basque Hydrogen Corridor project is supported.
The PNV once again marks its distance from the left-wing agenda of a good part of the parties that will presumably support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. A few months before Euskadi will hold elections to the Basque Parliament next spring, the Jeltzales do not want the agreements of the rest of the probable partners of the investiture to drag them into positions that they do not defend and that clash with the vision of a good part of its social base and, particularly, with those of the Basque business community. Maintaining its own and differentiated profile is a priority for the PNV in this final stretch before the Basque elections.
