Spain's Energy Minister believes retailing market needs more competition
Spain needs to take further measures towards building a competitive fuel retailing market, according to Spain's Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism José Manuel Soria.
In an interview held with news agency Europa Press, Soria said the government should follow the recommendations made by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC in its Spanish acronyms) to ensure higher levels of competition among independent, medium and big fuel retailers.
“We have analyzed in detail the new proposals made by the commission to introduce changes to the retailing market, and we don´t have any inconvenient in doing so if we see that it will effectively improve competition,” said Soria.
However, Soria´s government, led by President Mariano Rajoy, has only three months remaining, with looming general elections set for early November. He acknowledged there wasn´t any “realistic parliamentary time” left to carry out such measures, but said that in the future the highest levels of market competition had to be introduced.
Spain´s minister also spoke of the achievements of his administration in increasing competition among small and independent retailers, mainly through the Ley de Hidrocarburos (Law of Hydrocarbons). These measures were the reason why 90% of the service stations opened in the last 18 months belonged to independent owners, in a country where the top four retailers operate 90% of the market.
