Are Europe’s sanctions on Russian energy doing it more harm than good?
The StrategistDec 20, 2022
On Tuesday, Spain's center-left government, led by PM Pedro Sánchez, announced a new €10B ($10.65B) package to counter inflation in 2023 — bringing the total government-funded aid to €45B since early 2022.
Like other European countries, Spain has been grappling with a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by the impact of the war in Ukraine on energy prices. The new package will see the extension of tax cuts for energy bills into the first half of next year.
The EU’s energy relationship with Russia is at the center of its economic struggles, and leaders have been slow to acknowledge this. European economies are on the brink of recession, and skyrocketing gas prices as a result of reckless Western sanctions will likely be the breaking point. Aid packages such as Spain's latest one is merely a band-aid to cover the gaping hole that is Europe's energy crisis.
Europe is indeed facing an energy crisis — an unavoidable reality as Putin uses oil to bully his way through the war. While it's impossible to avoid the economic repercussions of this, aid packages will go a long way to alleviating the pain. This latest plan will provide much-needed relief for thousands of Spaniards.