The Spanish government will approve a package of measures next Tuesday to mitigate the impact of the war

MadridThe Spanish government will approve the first measures to mitigate the economic impact of the war in Iran at the Council of Ministers meeting next Tuesday. This was explained by Vice President Yolanda Díaz in an interview on TVE shortly before the meeting the government will hold this morning with unions and employers' associations to discuss its plan in response to the conflict in the Middle East. The Minister of Labor also indicated that among the measures, which would take effect immediately—once published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), presumably on Wednesday—could be a ban on dismissals for energy-related reasons, mobility plans, tax measures for the most affected sectors, and other measures. "We are fine-tuning the measures day by day, and we will approve some of them next Tuesday," she said. This Tuesday's meeting is at the highest level. The main economic portfolios of the state executive branch—the Ministries of Economy, Finance, Labor, Energy, and Social Security—will meet with the union leaders of CCOO and UGT and those of the Spanish employers' associations CEOE and Cepyme to move forward on the package of measures being developed by the Moncloa Palace. Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo acknowledged a few days ago that the impact of the war was already being felt in families' wallets, and this Wednesday he anticipated that in the next four to ten days the increase in the price of oil and gas would be passed on "fully" to citizens. He was referring to fuel prices, but also to the increase in electricity bills for some customers and, later, to the cost of the basic food basket. In this regard, the government wants to put forward a package that includes more than just energy measures. And this is where reviving some of the social safety net proposals that derailed a few weeks ago in Congress, and which the executive branch should approve again, as Díaz has pointed out, could come into play. For now, unions and employers' associations haven't made major demands and are expected to do so at Thursday's meeting. In any case, the former, or at least that's what CCOO has expressed, are more in favor of proposals that limit prices, while the business sector welcomes tax breaks and incentives—a dichotomy that was already seen during the war in Ukraine. The Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, has already detailed that the plan envisioned by the Spanish government will include both short-term measures—that is, one-off measures—and structural ones. The targeted measures must protect businesses, workers, and families, and could include proposals already approved in 2022 with the outbreak of war in Ukraine: for example, fuel subsidies or VAT reductions on food. Structural measures would serve to strengthen strategic autonomy and the energy transition, the minister said, with the aim of being "less exposed" to price volatility. Throughout Wednesday, the Ministries of Energy and Economy also met with other sectors directly or indirectly affected by the war in the Middle East. They met with the gas and oil sector and with large energy-consuming industries, while on Thursday the Minister of Economy will meet with the distribution and logistics sectors.