Comment: Spain has a spark

Against all the odds, EU leaders, after nine hours of talks, granted Spain and Portugal special permission to manage their own electricity prices.

The talks were tense, at one point the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stormed out after reading a Tweet by a French journalist. However, he did not lose his rag and managed to convince enough member states that the two countries had a relatively high share of renewables in their energy mix and very few interconnections to other parts of the EU grid in order to control and reduce energy prices.

The left wing media in Spain had a field day yesterday hailing the result as a major triumph for Spain and praising the leadership and authority of Sánchez.

This could be a landmark moment for Spain with regards to its role in the EU.

When the UK voted for Brexit, Sánchez was quick to state that Spain will fill the vast void left in the EU by the departure of the UK.

And, ironically, while Sánchez believes in the idea of the European Union, he often complains that it does not work as well as it should and needs to be reformed.
Nevertheless, he appears to have gotten the better of the EU this week and shown just how much influence Spain carries.