The Diplomat
The Spanish and Portuguese governments yesterday once again claimed for energy interconnections, including the MidCat pipeline, rejected by France, in the name of “solidarity” with the EU countries most dependent on Russian gas.
“Neither Spain nor Portugal have any energy supply difficulties,” said Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares at the press conference following the meeting of the Spanish and Portuguese foreign and defense ministers, held at the headquarters of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lisbon as part of the 2+2 format agreed at the last Spanish-Portuguese summit in 2020.
The meeting, attended by the Portuguese and Spanish foreign ministers, José Manuel Albares and João Gomes Cravinho, and the defense ministers of both countries, Helena Carreiras and Margarita Robles, addressed the war in Ukraine, energy connections in Europe, NATO and the situation in the Sahel and served as preparation for the next Spanish-Portuguese summit in October.
According to Albares, the two countries have an “enormous regasification capacity” which makes them safe from a possible cut-off of Russian gas. For this reason, he added, Spain and Portugal have made a series of “constructive proposals”, such as the MidCat gas pipeline, which are part of the “Iberian solutions” to “confront Vladimir Putin’s gas blackmail” and to reinforce “European solidarity” in favor of those countries “most dependent on Russia”. “For this we must complete those few kilometers that remain for the gas interconnection of the Iberian Peninsula with the Central European network,” he warned.
For his part, Cravinho recalled that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had announced just yesterday the creation of a European Hydrogen Bank, “an excellent idea that clearly points to European energy autonomy through new interconnections”. In these circumstances, she added, “the positions of Portugal and Spain are gaining ground and are increasingly understood”.
At the same press conference, Margarita Robles assured that the two countries agree on the need to “increase and continue supporting” the Ukrainians, because to do so is to “support values and peace”, and affirmed that both governments have committed to “continue working together to make proposals that demonstrate that the two countries aspire to have a solid leadership in the EU”. “Portugal and Spain contribute and will continue to contribute a great many issues in the EU”, added Robles, who also showed her concern for the situation in the Sahel, where it is necessary to “continue working together”.
