Eduardo González
Spain and Portugal will hold from tonight until tomorrow in Jameos del Agua (Lanzarote) a new bilateral Summit, which will take place just four months after the previous one and in which the two Iberian countries will sign almost a dozen bilateral agreements directly related to the Common Cross-Border Development Strategy adopted during the 2020 Summit.
According to Moncloa sources, the two governments took into account, when scheduling the Summit, both the busy electoral agenda in Spain (regional and municipal elections on May 28 and general elections at the end of the year, most probably on December 10) and the celebration of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of the year. For this reason, Madrid and Lisbon concluded that the only possible time to hold the meeting was this first quarter, despite the proximity of the previous Summit, which took place at the beginning of November in Viana do Castelo. According to the same sources, the two countries were very clear that the annual rhythm of their bilateral Summits should be maintained.
The XXXIV Spanish-Portuguese Summit will be held in Lanzarote. Along with the desire to highlight the Atlantic vocation of the two countries, the main factor that was taken into account to choose the Canary Island is the centenary of the birth of the writer José Saramago (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998), which took place in November last year. For this reason, the bilateral meeting will begin this afternoon with a visit to the José Saramago House-Museum by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa. This first day, which is actually a prolegomenon to the Summit itself, will conclude with an informal dinner of the two delegations at the Castle of San José.
The Summit, as such, will be held tomorrow and will begin with an official act of reception by Pedro Sánchez to António Costa and with the greetings between the two delegations in Jameos del Agua, with military honors. Afterwards, the two heads of government will hold a bilateral meeting and the participating ministers will meet separately with their respective counterparts. The day will close at noon with a plenary meeting and a joint press conference by Sánchez and Costa.
Apart from the two prime ministers, the Spanish side (together with their counterparts from Portugal) will be represented in Lanzarote by the second vice-president and minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the third vice-president and minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop; the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez; the Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Pilar Alegría; the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta; the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias; and the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats.
Joint Declaration and agreements
At the end of the meeting, a Joint Declaration will be approved which will include, according to Moncloa sources, both bilateral issues and the European agenda. In this case, shared points of view will be taken into account in view of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the coincidences in matters such as governance and European fiscal rules, energy, the fight against climate change or the protection and conservation of biodiversity.
As in Viana do Castelo, the bilateral summit will coincide with the honeymoon that the two countries are experiencing in relation to the energy market and the application of the so-called Iberian Mechanism, with which Spain and Portugal have been governed since June 15 and which allows a ceiling of 40 euros per megawatt/hour to be established on the price of gas used to produce electricity. The objective of the two countries is to try to extend this system – authorized almost a year ago by the European Council in view of the “energy island” character of the peninsula – until the end of this year.
In any case, according to the aforementioned sources, the French proposal (opposed by Spain) for the H2Med energy interconnection project -adopted last December by Spain, France and Portugal- to allow the transport of hydrogen of nuclear origin will not be discussed during the Summit. On the other hand, the development of this corridor in its Spanish-Portuguese section, between Zamora and Celorico, will be analyzed (the Spanish-French section will be the maritime corridor between Barcelona and Marseille).
Likewise, a good number of agreements will be adopted during the Summit, most of which are part of the implementation of the Common Strategy for Cross-Border Development (ECDT), approved during the XXXI Spanish-Portuguese Summit, held in 2020 in Guarda.
Specifically, in addition to the Joint Declaration, the two governments will sign a Declaration of Intent of the Ministries of Labor on bilateral cooperation on training in social economy, a Memorandum of Understanding between Ministries of Education on bilingual and intercultural schools in border regions and a Memorandum of Understanding for a common cultural Agenda between Spain and Portugal in 2023, also in the border area.
Spain and Portugal will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Ecological Transition (Spain) and Territorial Cohesion (Portugal) on the revitalization and rehabilitation of cross-border villages, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Ecological Transition and the Ministries of Universities (on the Spanish side) and Territorial Cohesion and Science (on the Portuguese side) for the creation of a Cross-Border Rural Campus, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Justice for the use of digital technologies in the cross-border administration of justice, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Universities on cooperation in higher education and a Declaration of Intent between the Ministries of Health on the fight against microbial resistance.
In addition, an agreement between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs to establish the basis for the Magellan-Elcano Awards, announced on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the circumnavigation, and a Declaration of Intent between the respective Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs on a cross-cultural programming project between Spain and Portugal to commemorate 50 years of democracy, are being finalized in preparation for the Summit. The project was conceived in the wake of the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal and is intended to run from the end of 2023 through 2024.
