“Our approach was very different from the German one”

Madrid Spain’s Economics Minister Nadia Calviño is calling for a level playing field for investments in the green transformation in the EU. “We must preserve the internal market and avoid allowing the richer countries to push the energy transition,” Calviño said in an interview, part of which was broadcast at the Handelsblatt energy summit on Monday.

“Climate change is a global challenge. It is not enough if Germany can transform its industry. We must ensure that all European countries are able to fund this transition.”

Germany angered several EU countries last fall when Berlin provided 200 billion euros to finance relief packages for high energy prices. Spain cannot afford hundreds of billions of euros for relief packages.

“Our approach was very different from the German one: we wanted to tackle the root of the problem and make sure we had reasonable energy prices,” says Calviño. “This makes subsidies as compensation for the high energy costs superfluous.”