Luis Ayllón
October will see a strengthening of bilateral relations between Spain and Germany, as a summit meeting between the two governments is scheduled for the beginning of the month, followed a few days later by a state visit by the King and Queen of Spain to Germany.
Thus, for the first time, both the head of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will have the opportunity to chair a bilateral summit between the two countries, since the last one took place in 2013 in Berlin, when Mariano Rajoy and Angela Merkel were at the head of the governments, respectively.
Now, nine years later, as The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources, the meeting will take place in Madrid on 5 and 6 October, and will be attended by seven or eight ministers from each country, to address both bilateral and European issues. One of the topics that will be at the centre of the conversation between the two heads of government will undoubtedly be the situation of gas supplies to central Europe, endangered by the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Recently, Chancellor Scholz publicly raised the need to connect Spain and Portugal with Central Europe via a gas pipeline, something with which the Spanish authorities agreed, because it could mean the resumption of work on the Midcat project, which has been paralysed since 2019.
Sánchez will explain to Scholz the importance of Germany convincing its EU partners that the aforementioned project must receive European aid if it is to go ahead. Spain has already said, through its third vice-president and minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, that the connection could be ready in eight or nine months, but for this to happen, France must be convinced not to put obstacles in the way.
The October meeting could be used by Sánchez to urge Scholz to convince the French president, Emmanuel Macron, of the advisability of reactivating the Midcat, whose connection already reaches the Catalan town of Hostalric. In addition, Spain wants to involve Germany in the negotiations it is holding with France on interconnections.
State visit
The bilateral summit between the two governments will be followed by the King and Queen’s first state visit to Germany, initially scheduled for the 17th and 18th, according to The Diplomat.
The King and Queen will be received by the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, whom Don Felipe and Doña Letizia already had the opportunity to welcome in Madrid in October 2018, offering them a lunch at the Royal Palace.
During their stay in Germany, they will inaugurate the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Spain is the guest country this year.
The King and Queen were already in Germany in December 2014, as part of the presentation visits they made to different countries, following Felipe VI’s accession to the throne.
