ZAP
“Monitor closely”: The European Commission has repeated that the ideal is to gradually eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels.
Portugal is once again under the eye of Brussels, as summarized by .
A European Commission announced this Tuesday that he will “monitor closely” the budgetary impact of discount that the Portuguese Government will give in the Tax on Petroleum and Energy Products (ISP) of diesel, taking note of the adoption of such measure.
“As part of the 2025 country-specific recommendations, the Council recommended that Portugal reduce global dependence on fossil fuelsparticularly in the transport sector, namely through phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. Therefore, the implementation of measures such as the reduction of ISP unit rates, as well as their impact, will be closely monitored and evaluated in the context of the European Semester”, said an official source from the community executive in a written response sent to the Lusa agency.
According to the institution’s spokesman for the area of Economics, Balazs Ujvari, the European Commission “will publish its assessment in the spring package of the 2026 European Semester”, which should be released on June 3, after the update of macroeconomic forecasts is published on May 21.
At both times, the institution will evaluate the measures adopted to alleviate “the increase in energy prices”, as well as those currently underway to “mitigate the damage caused by storms” at the beginning of the year in the country.
The person responsible pointed out that Portugal “does not have to notify the Commission to move forward with the temporary and extraordinary reduction of ISP unit rates”, but assured that Brussels “regularly monitors developments in budgetary policy in Member States and takes note of these types of announcements”.
“Like all other Member States, Portugal will have to report in your report annual progress report for 2026 budgetary policy measures with an impact between 2023 and 2026”, he added.
On Monday, the Minister of Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, said he trusts that the European Commission has “no objection” to the discount on diesel ISP, as it is “extraordinary and temporary” due to the war in the Middle East.
Previously, last Friday, the Government announced that it would proceed with a temporary and extraordinary reduction of 3.55 cents per liter in the ISP applicable, on the continent, to road diesel.
The discount now announced comes after sector forecasts also released on Friday, that the increase in the price of diesel should, this week, be greater than 10 cents per liter.
