Portugal wants European regulators' agency to lead Iberia outage investigation
Maria da Graca Carvalho said Prime Minister Luis Montenegro wants an independent investigation led by the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators to complement the technical report being prepared by the European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E.
"ACER, as a suitable entity to coordinate any external evaluation process, could bring more confidence, impartiality and transparency to the conclusions," Carvalho said in an e-mail, responding to questions from Reuters.
"As for speculation about cyber attacks, sabotage or human error, at this time there is no evidence" that any of those could have caused the outage, the minister told Reuters in a written statement.
Spain's energy minister said last week that an abrupt loss of power generation at a site in Granada, followed by outages seconds later in Badajoz and Seville, triggered the unprecedented blackout across Spain and Portugal on April 28.
Iberia lags behind the EU's target for all countries to have 15% of their energy system interconnected to the broader European network by 2030, with Iberia's share stuck at just 3%.
Carvalho said that, regardless of the causes of the blackout, Portugal was pondering how to strengthen the resilience and security of the national electricity system, which is a "strategic imperative".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
17 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Stocks cheer the art of Trump's trade deals after EU agreement
Global stocks rose and the euro firmed on Monday after a trade agreement between the United States and the EU lifted sentiment and provided clarity in a pivotal week headlined by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan policy meetings. ADVERTISEMENT The U.S. struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods - half the threatened rate, a week after agreeing to a trade deal with Japan that lowered tariffs on auto imports. Countries are scrambling to finalise trade deals ahead of the August 1 deadline, with talks between the U.S. and China set for Monday in Stockholm amid expectation of another 90-day extension to the truce between the top two economies. "A 15% tariff on European goods, forced purchases of U.S. energy and military equipment and zero tariff retaliation by Europe, that's not negotiation, that's the art of the deal," said Prashant Newnaha, senior Asia-Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities. "A big win for the U.S." S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% and the Nasdaq futures gained 0.5% while the euro firmed across the board, rising against the dollar, sterling and yen. European futures surged nearly 1%. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei slipped after touching a one-year high last week while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.27%, just shy of the almost four-year high it touched last week. ADVERTISEMENT While the baseline 15% tariff will still be seen by many in Europe as too high, compared with Europe's initial hopes to secure a zero-for-zero tariff deal, it is better than the threatened 30% rate. The deal with the EU provides clarity to companies and averts a bigger trade war between the two allies that account for almost a third of global trade. ADVERTISEMENT "Putting it all together, what we've seen with Japan, with the EU, with the talks which are due to be held in Stockholm between the U.S. and China, it really does negate the risk of a prolonged trade war," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG. "The importance of the August tariff deadline has significantly been diffused." ADVERTISEMENT The Australian dollar, often seen as a proxy for risk sentiment, was 0.12% higher at $0.65725 in early trading, hovering around the near eight-month peak scaled last week. In an action-packed week, investors will watch out for the monetary policy meetings from the Fed and the BOJ as well as the monthly U.S. employment report and earnings reports from megacap companies Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. ADVERTISEMENT While the Fed and the BOJ are expected to stand pat on rates, comments from the officials will be crucial for investors to gauge the interest rate path. The trade deal with Japan has opened the door for the BOJ to raise rates again this year. Meanwhile, the Fed is likely to be cautious on any rate cuts as officials seek more data to determine if tariffs are worsening inflation before they ease rates further. But tensions between the White House and the central bank over monetary policy have heightened, with Trump repeatedly denouncing Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates. Two of the Fed Board's Trump appointees have articulated reasons for supporting a rate cut this month. ING economists expect December to be the likely starting point for rate cuts, but it "may be a 50 basis point cut, if the evidence on weaker jobs and GDP growth becomes more apparent as we anticipate." "This would be a similar playbook to the Federal Reserve's actions in 2024, where it waited until it was completely comfortable to commit to a lower interest rate environment," they said in a note. (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
Hindustan Times
32 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
US and EU avert trade war with 15% tariff deal
The US struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods - half the threatened rate - and averting a bigger trade war between the two allies that account for almost a third of global trade. US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L) following their meeting, in Turnberry south west Scotland on July 27, 2025.(AFP) US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal at Trump's luxury golf course in western Scotland after an hour-long meeting that pushed the hard-fought deal over the line, following months of negotiations. "I think this is the biggest deal ever made," Trump told reporters, lauding EU plans to invest some $600 billion in the United States and dramatically increase its purchases of U.S. energy and military equipment. Trump said the deal, which tops a $550 billion deal signed with Japan last week, would expand ties between the trans-Atlantic powers after years of what he called unfair treatment of U.S. exporters. Also Read | Explained: Donald Trump's landmark $1.35 trillion trade deal with EU before tariff deadline Von der Leyen, describing Trump as a tough negotiator, said the 15% tariff applied "across the board", later telling reporters it was "the best we could get." "We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability," she said. The agreement mirrors key parts of the framework accord reached by the U.S. with Japan, but like that deal, it leaves many questions open, including tariff rates on spirits, a highly charged topic for many on both sides of the Atlantic. The deal, which Trump said calls for $750 billion of EU purchases of U.S. energy in coming years and "hundreds of billions of dollars" of arms purchases, likely spells good news for a host of EU companies, including Airbus, Mercedes-Benz and Novo Nordisk, if all the details hold. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal, saying it averted a trade conflict that would have hit Germany's export-driven economy and its large auto sector hard. German carmakers, VW, Mercedes and BMW were some of the hardest hit by the 27.5% U.S. tariff on car and parts imports now in place. The baseline 15% tariff will still be seen by many in Europe as too high, compared with Europe's initial hopes to secure a zero-for-zero tariff deal. Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who heads the European Parliament's trade committee, said the tariffs were imbalanced and the hefty EU investment earmarked for the U.S. would likely come at the bloc's own expense. Trump retains the ability to increase the tariffs in the future if European countries do not live up to their investment commitments, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters on Sunday evening. The euro rose around 0.2% against the dollar, sterling and yen within an hour of the deal's being announced. MIRROR OF JAPAN DEAL Carsten Nickel, deputy director of research at Teneo, said Sunday's accord was "merely a high-level, political agreement" that could not replace a carefully hammered out trade deal: "This, in turn, creates the risk of different interpretations along the way, as seen immediately after the conclusion of the U.S.-Japan deal." While the tariff applies to most goods, including semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, there are exceptions. The U.S. will keep in place a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum. Von der Leyen suggested the tariff could be replaced with a quota system; a senior administration official said EU leaders had asked that the two sides continue to talk about the issue. Von der Leyen said there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. "We will keep working to add more products to this list," von der Leyen said, adding that spirits were still under discussion. A U.S. official said the tariff rate on commercial aircraft would remain at zero for now, and the parties would decide together what to do after a U.S. review is completed, adding there is a "reasonably good chance" they could agree to a lower tariff than 15%. No timing was given for when that probe would be completed. The deal will be sold as a triumph for Trump, who is seeking to reorder the global economy and reduce decades-old U.S. trade deficits, and has already reached similar framework accords with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has not hit its goal of "90 deals in 90 days." U.S. officials said the EU had agreed to lower non-tariff barriers for automobiles and some agricultural products, though EU officials suggested the details of those standards were still under discussion. "Remember, their economy is $20 trillion ... they are five times bigger than Japan," a senior U.S. official told reporters during a briefing. "So the opportunity of opening their market is enormous for our farmers, our fishermen, our ranchers, all our industrial products, all our businesses." Trump has periodically railed against the EU, saying it was "formed to screw the United States" on trade. He has fumed for years about the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $235 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The EU points to the U.S. surplus in services, which it says partially redresses the balance. Trump has argued that his tariffs are bringing in "hundreds of billions of dollars" in revenues for the U.S. while dismissing warnings from economists about the risk of inflation. On July 12, Trump threatened to apply a 30% tariff on imports from the EU starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. The EU had prepared countertariffs on 93 billion euros ($109 billion) of U.S. goods in the event a deal to avoid the tariffs could not be struck.
Hindustan Times
32 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Thai-Cambodia clashes: Peace talks to begin in Malaysia as US steps in
Four days after hostilities intensified following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief border skirmish in May, Thailand and Cambodia are set to begin negotiation talks aimed at ending the ongoing conflict. The high-level talks will take place in Malaysia on Monday. People queue to receive water supplies donated at Batthkao Primary School camp, amid ongoing clashes on the Thai-Cambodian border conflict.(REUTERS) Talks are scheduled to begin at 3 pm local time (0700 GMT) on Monday, with acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai leading the Thai negotiating team, the government announced in a statement on Sunday night. In another significant development, the US announced that its officials are already in Malaysia to assist peace efforts, as the two leaders prepare to meet. President Donald Trump and Rubio were engaged with their counterparts for each country and were monitoring the situation very closely, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement released by the State Department. Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have intensified since the late-May killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief border skirmish. The most recent clashes resumed on July 24 and, within just four days, escalated into the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours in more than a decade. Key top points on the Thailand-Cambodia clashes:
