Joao Mira Gomes
Ambassador of Portugal in Spain
Alberto Rubio
Energy, technological innovation, water management and cross-border cooperation. The 33rd bilateral summit that the heads of government of Spain and Portugal will preside over in Viana do Castelo next Friday will be full of cooperation projects between the two countries. The Portuguese ambassador to Spain, Joao Mira Gomes, says in a video interview for The Diplomat’s YouTube channel that both countries “can contribute much more to Europe” by boosting their cooperation.
I would be surprised if the high-speed rail links between Spain and Portugal are not going to be discussed. Will there be any progress in this summit?
This issue has already been discussed at many summits. We talked about it in Trujillo and in Guarda. Both sides have a great knowledge of each other’s plans for high-speed rail. It is not true that in Portugal we only think about the Lisbon-Oporto-Vigo connection. We think about Lisbon-Porto because it is normal that our priority is to connect the two main cities of the country. But having said that, we also think about the relations between the north of Portugal and Galicia. So it is normal to have a connection between Porto and Vigo. But we can only get to the border. And to get to Vigo it is necessary for the Spanish side to build the section to the Portuguese border.
But we also want to have a high-speed connection halfway between Lisbon and Porto, specifically between Aveiro and Salamanca. With this connection we would already be connecting with the entire high-speed network in Spain because we would reach Medina del Campo very quickly, from where we would connect with Madrid and we could also connect with Burgos, which I think is an interesting option for Castilla y León. Then we could see how we could get from Burgos to the French border. For us, Alta Velocidad is not only Lisbon-Oporto-Vigo. We want to have several options to reach Spain and Madrid.
Are there other projects underway?
We are already building a High Speed line for freight between the port of Sines and the logistics platform of Badajoz, which will be finished next year and which we can also take advantage of for passengers. Finally, we would very much like the Spanish government to build a connection between Seville and Huelva. From Huelva we could reach the Algarve and then go up to Lisbon, so we would be connecting the Mediterranean ring with the Atlantic ring.
As you can see, our vision is much broader than the Lisbon-Madrid AVE, because we want to be connected to different autonomous communities in Spain. Of course the connection between our capitals is very important, but that has to do with other issues such as, for example, where the future international airport of Lisbon will be located, which is something we do not yet know.
Portugal already has very advanced budgets and projects, but the same does not seem to be true of Spain.
Spain is also investing a lot. Everything that has been done in the high-speed connection with Galicia and the work to have another connection with Extremadura are very important for us. And a logistics platform is being developed in Salamanca that will have a direct exit to Portuguese Atlantic ports, such as Leixoes, near Oporto, or Aveiro. That is why we also want to have the connection to Vigo ready by 2030.
This does not seem like a long time for a project of this magnitude.
A few weeks ago we already announced the high-speed route to reach Porto and then the border. No, it is not too long.
I see that you are optimistic about it.
It is that nothing more needs to come out of everything we have talked about. It is a work that is already underway. For me, this issue of the High Speed Railway is now about following up on the work that we have already started.
Let’s talk about other infrastructures. Finally there was an agreement with France to move from MidCat to the Green Energy Corridor. Is this just a semantic change or is there more to it?
Yes, there is a change. To begin with, we have reached a commitment with France to develop more electricity connections, in addition to the ones we are already building. Because the two Iberian countries produce renewable electricity that we want to export and for that we need to have more connections with France.
As for the Green Corridor, the big difference is that it is easier for France to have a direct underwater connection to Marseille than to build a gas pipeline through its territory to reach the connection point with Spain. On the other hand, we have to increase the connections between Portugal and Spain, because we cannot talk about more connections with France if we are not more integrated.
At this summit we will approve an agreement on a new electricity connection in the north with Galicia, which has all the environmental aspects sorted out. And the tripartite agreement between Portugal, Spain and France also mentions a new connection for green hydrogen and gas between Portugal and Spain.
In reality, in this geopolitical scenario, both countries can contribute much more than we are contributing to Europe in terms of energy security. That is why we are going to sign the agreement for the creation of the Iberian Centre for Renewable Energies in Cáceres, following the same model as the Iberian Nanotechnology Centre in Braga.
The crisis caused by the Ukrainian war has opened the door for Portugal and Spain to become much more important in the energy field within the EU. Have we not valued ourselves enough in this field?
Both countries have been investing in renewables for a long time. In Portugal, renewables represent almost 60% of our energy production. But we have to look at other possibilities and off-shore wind power or producing solar energy in reservoirs are possible areas of cooperation with Spain.
The energy issue is very important but it is connected to the central theme of the summit, which is innovation. That is why we have to take advantage of the capacity we have at the Institute of Nanotechnology in Braga, which the two prime ministers will visit on the 4th. It is fundamental because nanotechnology is already present in all these areas.
What other innovation themes will there be at this summit?
We have three. One, energy, which we have already talked about and which also has to do with the production of lithium batteries: how to make them smaller, lighter, with second generation cells. Another very important issue is microchips. We have the opportunity to jointly develop our production capacity to export to Europe and other destinations. And again the Braga Institute will play an important role. And there is a third aspect, which is aerospace. We are going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation, which is called the Atlantic Constellation. We want to develop a network of low and medium altitude satellites for Earth observation. Cooperation with Spain on these science issues is an absolute priority for us. Not forgetting that innovation goes hand in hand with talent and we need to make more use of the talent that exists in both countries.
What has been the response from companies in the sector?
A very positive response because we have organisations already working on these issues. In addition, the new coordinator of the Spanish aerospace PERTE was the former director of the Portuguese Space Agency. So we have the best possible cooperation, looking also at industrial cooperation.
Let’s go down from space to earth, and to water. Will there be a review of the Albufeira Convention?
Almost every week we talk about water. With the tremendous drought this year we have accelerated the pace of work even more. We know that there is less water, but we also know that we have the necessary mechanisms to have more flexibility to deal with this shortage. The Albufeira Commission gives us a lot of flexibility to deal with these issues. This year Spain did not meet the annual volume it was supposed to transfer to Portugal, it only transferred 90 per cent. We understood this and we proposed to talk about how to deal with the drought. Because it is not only the drought but the use of water, that is, how we can improve the quality of water. The easiest thing is to present this issue as a ‘water war’ but it is not real. The reality is that we are cooperating. And it is very important to explain this to the public.
Will there also be developments in transboundary cooperation?
At this summit we are going to present a guide to help cross-border workers. This is another step towards having a statute for cross-border workers. We will also present for the first time a common strategy for sustainable cross-border tourism and a shared cultural agenda. The cross-border region, except for the Minho, is the least developed of the two countries. That is why this strategy aims to boost economic development, create more jobs, attract young people, and at the same time do it in a sustainable way. It is a good example that we can also give to the other countries of Europe.
