the new ones energy saving measures imposed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge they have not been well received by merchants and managers of bars and restaurants in the Girona regions, who call them, in many locales, “subhuman”. Although the third vice-president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, announced yesterday a change in the initial proposal, Girona establishments consider that they are not at all reasonable with this summer’s heat waves.
An essential requirement to be able to set the air conditioning thermostat to 25 degrees and not 27 is to have workers “on the move”, such as those in bars and restaurants. However, the vice-president of Girona Center Eix Comercial, Mercè Ramírez de Cartagena, highlights the lack of concreteness of the established decree: “Where is the trade involved in this proposal? How well can you differentiate if you have mobile workers or not? It is essential to guide it”.
On the other hand, the president of Comerç Figueres Associació, Frederic Carbó, is critical of the new decree: “raising the thermostats to 27 degrees is making the poorest poor”. Reaching this temperature with these constant heat waves, “is a clear policy that favors the online store and turns its back on small businesses and street-level establishments.”
“It’s a clear policy that favors the online store and turns its back on small businesses and street-level establishments.”
Stones on the roof
Clothing establishments from all over the Girona territory emphasize that it is throwing stones at one’s own roof, since “customers do not want to try on clothes if they arrive sweaty from outside and the store does not cool down either”, they maintain from by Júlia Roba Intima de Girona. From Tin et Mó, on Carrer Santa Clara in Girona, they share the same opinion and point out that right now the temperature is 25 degrees in the establishment, but that “it is unsustainable at certain times of the day, for the clientele and for to us”.
So, Carbó points out that with this Royal Decree only companies like Amazon and all those where the consumer buys online will benefit, and more so after a pandemic that has dragged on since March 2020 and that has led to an exponential increase in sales through the Internet.
The aid and subsidies that the different establishments have received as a result of covid-19 have helped, but they have not alleviated the effects of almost two years of pandemic where the income of the premises has been seriously affected. From the restaurant Plaça del Vi 7 in Girona they state that with the few profits they have had it is very difficult to establish the measures correctly, and that a sliding door, for example, needs some money to install and for maintenance, and time that the “numbers are not good”.
Along these lines, Ramírez de Cartagena points out that the rucksack they carry “is getting bigger and bigger” and that beyond the financial expense of installing them, there is a need behind them to have them wide open bat: “it’s the way to bring customers in, we don’t open them for taste”, he explains.
The measures come only five days after their implementation and, considering that it is the holiday season and many workers are missing, it is very difficult to carry them out properly.
Many suppliers do not work and all this, added to the summer sales, outrages Girona Center Eix Comercial: “it is impossible to do this if no one is working, and it is also impossible to raise the temperature in the middle of August, and even more so with these prevailing temperatures. It’s all nonsense”, says Ramírez.
“It is impossible to raise the temperature in the middle of August, and even more so with these prevailing temperatures. The whole thing is nonsense”
Beyond the temperature, the establishments will have to inform about the compliance with the energy saving regulations on the basis of explanatory posters and they will have to measure the degrees of humidity in the establishment.
“Small businesses cannot wait to measure the parameters that are being asked of them, it’s already difficult enough since the pandemic to ask them to make more efforts,” says Ramírez. Alocals like UME Girona (Musical Eiximenis) are gradually increasing the temperature, to adapt to the new law. They had it at 25 degrees and now they have already put it at 26.5.
In addition, the ministry also pointed out that there will be penalties for those businesses that do not comply. The fines for those who do not adopt the measures can reach one hundred million euros in the event that they are considered very serious and violations are committed repeatedly. If they are serious, they will be up to six million euros and will reach 60,000 euros if they qualify as mild.
Now, among the population there is great doubt as to whether it will be possible to have control over each of the businesses: “If there are no officials, who will come to do the inspections?”, says a Girona shopkeeper. Small businesses that can’t afford a loss of customers could take the risk if they don’t find a profit in making the requested temperature change.
“The problem lies in the fact that the price of electricity is exorbitant, my thermostat will not change anything,” explains a waitress at the 365 cafe on Carrer Nou. At the moment, the air conditioning is at 24 degrees, “a temperature not at all disproportionate in accordance with the temperatures of the last few days”, he comments.
In La Taverna de Girona, in the Mercadal district, the air is 23 degrees, a value that already seems high compared to the 19 degrees they had last year
At La Taverna de Girona, located in Plaça del Mercadal, they point out that until now they had it at 23 degrees, a value that already seems high compared to the 19 degrees they had last year. Despite being in disagreement with the measures, for their part they do consider that it can mean energy savings for the bar, although “all in all, you have to see”. However, they note the need for urgent measures in the face of the increase in the electricity bill: “we went from paying around 1,800 euros to paying 3,000”, they say.
With regard to large establishments, such as shopping centers, Pau Jordà, director of Espai Gironès (Salt), also explains that, in his opinion, he does not believe that the regulations to establish a temperature for shops affect in a way generalized because the degrees of difference they propose “almost do not vary in number” and that, therefore, this action will contribute, if at all, very minimally to savings.
In any case, Jordà assures that when applying the measures proposed by the BOE, he will do everything possible to ensure that they are met throughout the shopping center: “each establishment operates independently, but the recommendation will be made”.
The head of the Blanes Traders’ Association, Lluís Pascual, says that each store will do it “a little in its own way”, since “for common sense, the measure will be adapted according to the type of establishment and according to the product sold”. He regrets that the government has acted without taking into account the affected sectors, which has forced them to modify or rectify their initial plans. He assures that, at the moment, they have not received any direct indication from any administration, and he does not expect that this August “there will be inspections with thermometers in hand”. In this sense, Carbó considers this set of policies another way of “collecting taxes” on the part of the Administration.
Where will the measures apply?
The regulations to limit thermostats will apply to administrative buildings, commercial premises and public places where agglomerations occur. It will not be mandatory in training centers, health centers, hairdressers, gyms and means of transport, among other businesses that can justify the need to maintain a temperature below what has been established. A worker at the Gluki chocolate and chocolate shop in Girona explains that in order to keep the product they sell in good condition, it would be impossible to comply with the BOE measures that propose a limit of 25ºC, let alone the proposed 27 initially