The war between unattended fuel stations and the more traditional versions continues to rage in Spain.
The Spanish government tried to bring all parties together and calm things by introducing changes in legislation to reinforce security on unattended sites, but for opponents this business model, they say is clearly insufficient and they are not willing to surrender until all fuel stations have at least one employee on site.
The campaign against is promoted by UGT and CCOO trade unions, patronal CEEES (Spanish Confederation of service station entrepreneurs) and Aevecar (Spanish association of retail fuel and fuel vendors) and COCEMFE, the confederation for disabled people.
No side seems willing to throw in the towel.
In April last year, a complaint was filed by supporters to the European Commission alleging that the principle of market freedom was being violated. Spain sent a letter to the EC assuring that they would put all means at their disposal to ensure that competition would not be limited.
Some have argued that unattended sites are not safe but Manuel Jimenez, President of the National Association of Automatic Service Stations says that nothing could be further from the truth, pointing out that in countries like Denmark and Germany for example there has been high penetration with no problems.
Watch this space!
Share this:
