Irene Fernández Puyol participates in the III Infrastructure Forum | El Economista

The III Infrastructure Forum concluded with the agreement on the urgency of modifying the regulatory framework to address the growing investment needs, especially in areas such as water, transport and energy transition.

“We cannot expect investors to bear all the risks without institutional certainty”, warned Irene Fernández Puyol, partner of Public Law and Regulated Sectors, in her speech at the Forum. In her opinion, the current regulatory context is excessively complex and fragmented, especially in the environmental field, where regional and national frameworks coexist, making planning difficult. This lack of homogeneity, together with constant regulatory changes, deters many operators.

“They cannot be approached as a relationship between a strong party and a weak party, but as a partnership between equals”, she explains. In this sense, she called for a better structuring of risks and a review of tendering and contracting models.

She also pointed out that the uncertainty over availability payments or the revision of tariffs in certain contracts is causing some international funds to rethink their strategy in Spain. “There is no appetite for investment when the framework changes in the middle of the game”, she summarised.

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