The memory of the “Iberian exception” will loom over a Spanish-Portuguese Summit overshadowed by the war in the Middle East

Eduardo González The La Rábida Monastery in Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, will host the 36th Spanish-Portuguese Summit this Friday, March 6th. While the main theme will be the impact of climate change on both countries, the summit will inevitably be influenced by the major international upheaval caused by the war in Iran and the rest of the Middle East. Although the conflict is not on the summit's agenda, sources at Moncloa Palace have admitted that geopolitical realities will, in some way, influence the bilateral meeting between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. It is also impossible to ignore that the meeting in La Rábida comes just days before the European Council meeting on March 19 and 20, where all these issues will inevitably be addressed. Indeed, the bilateral summit comes just days after Sumar, the minority party in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government, released a statement on the "economic response to the war in Iran." Among other proposals, the statement advocates for the reinstatement of the "Iberian exception, which proved so successful, establishing a price cap of €50 per megawatt-hour for gas on the wholesale market." “We did it in 2022 to address the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and it worked. Now we have to do it again so that Spanish citizens don't pay the price for Trump's wars,” the text adds. The so-called “Iberian exception” was the mechanism adopted by Spain and Portugal between June 2022 and December 2023, with the approval of the European Council and amidst the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It allowed the two countries to manage their own reference gas prices for combined-cycle power plants, given the peninsula's status as an “energy island” due to its very low interconnection with the European energy market. In this regard, sources at Moncloa Palace admitted that, although this issue is not expected to be addressed at the summit, this mechanism represented a “great Iberian success” and allowed for a reduction of around ten percent in energy prices on the peninsula. As a consequence of the war in Iran and its spread to the rest of the Middle East, one of whose consequences was the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz (through which until very recently 20% of the world's total gas and oil passed), energy prices have gone from $70 to $84 (an increase of 19 percent) in the case of oil and from €31 to €55 (a 77 percent increase) in the case of natural gas. The summit In any case, according to the aforementioned sources at Moncloa Palace, the main theme of the summit will be the impact of climate change on both countries (Spain and Portugal accounted for half of all hectares burned by wildfires in the European Union in 2025), and the meeting's motto will be "Alliance for Climate Security." In this regard, the joint declaration of the La Rábida meeting, the details of which are still being finalized, will consist of six elements: energy and ecological transition; a sustainable and competitive economy within the framework of the fight against climate change; digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure from a sustainable perspective; adaptation to and management of crises related to the environment and climate change; food security, agriculture, and fisheries; and biodiversity and forest management. In addition, the declaration will include a seventh chapter, customary at these summits, dedicated to foreign relations. The two delegations also plan to sign several bilateral cooperation agreements on civil protection in the face of climate emergencies and on health, among other topics, and will discuss a project to reduce rail travel time between Lisbon and Madrid. The Spanish delegation to the summit will consist of, in addition to Pedro Sánchez, First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero; Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; and Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen; as well as the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska; Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres; Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo; Health, Mónica García; Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy; Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and Government Spokesperson, Elma Saiz; and Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Óscar López. The Portuguese delegation will consist of seven ministers. The 36th Spanish-Portuguese Summit was initially scheduled for January 29th, but was postponed due to the Adamuz (Córdoba) train accident, which resulted in the deaths of more than forty people. La Rábida was chosen as the summit venue thanks to the efforts of all political parties with the Huelva Provincial Council and the support of the La Rábida Association for Ibero-American and Columbian Studies. At the 1999 Summit in Havana, Cuba, the Ibero-American heads of state declared La Rábida a “Place of Ibero-American Meeting,” which meant it should host high-level meetings, something that had not yet occurred.

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