The government has asked the European Commission to investigate fuel prices in Portugal and their relationship to prices charged across the rest of the community as, compared to purchasing power, Portugal’s are the highest in the European Union.
Brussels, keen to protect the business sector to the detriment of the public, has decided that there currently is no reason to carry out such an analysis, but will be available to do so if new evidence emerges that demonstrates that there is a problem in the Portuguese fuel market.
An official source of the Commission said it had received a letter from the Portuguese Government at the end of July which requested the investigation and that it responded to this letter earlier this week, noting that “price differences by themselves do not justify an investigation.”
An EU spokesman said, "Specifically about Portugal, the mere divergence of prices at regional, national and international level is not sufficient to prove the existence of anti-competitive behavior which would justify an investigation by the Commission."
The Brussels suit noted that Portugal’s Competition Authority currently is studying "competition conditions in the fuel sector as well as the margin along the value chain."
This Competition Authority investigation was requested by the Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, way back in January and it still is ‘ongoing’ and as an end date was not set, the report could take years.
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