La Presidencia española de la Unión Europea y los retos de la transición verde

Resumo

Spain will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) in the second half of 2023 and, thereof, the Presidency of the EU. This is a highly relevant responsibility, which will test Spain’s leadership and capacity to reconcile different positions and coordinate joint responses to address the enormous challenges currently facing the EU. Amongst the most relevant challenges, the transition towards climate neutrality stands out. Energy autonomy is a key component of this process whose pace has been accelerated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this uncertain energy and geopolitical context, this article aims to analyse the main priorities of the Spanish Presidency as regards to climate and energy policy. Specifically, it identifies the impulse to energy interconnections and promotion of renewables energies as the key axis of the Spanish Presidency’s green agenda. As a main result, the article concludes that the coordination of the necessary efforts to address the EU climate and energy challenges will require additional doses of flexibility on the part of the Spanish Presidency in order to adapt common responses to emerging changes in a complex context such as the current one.