The President of the Government considered this Friday that Portugal and Spain, together, can supply about 30% of Europe’s energy needs and also stressed that the two countries now have a unique opportunity in this field.
This position was defended by António Costa in his initial speech before the Portuguese-Spanish Chamber of Commerce, a speech that focused on the current situation arising from the war in Ukraine and on the question of the dependence of various European member states on Russia.
“It was a shame that it took a war for everyone in the European Union to understand the issue of energy security and the importance of accelerating the energy transition. This brought back the issue of interconnections and the European Commission was very clear in its statement that it was necessary to complete them between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe”, declared the leader of the Portuguese executive.
According to António Costa, there is now “an enormous responsibility for Portugal and Spain —and for the energy companies of both countries— to take advantage of this unique opportunity to overcome a barrier that has been very difficult to overcome until now”.
“And this with the European Commission saying that, although it is not possible to make the interconnection through the Pyrenees, there will be the possibility of making a direct connection by submarine between Spain and Italy,” he added, referring to France’s resistance in relation to this project. , but also the difficulties that Germany is currently experiencing in relation to the diversification of its energy supply routes.
In this context, the Prime Minister stressed that Portugal and Spain must give top priority to the energy issuesince the Iberian Peninsula, due to the capacity already installed, “has the conditions to supply almost 30% of Europe’s needs”.
“With some investment we can supply even more. That is what we have to know how to value in our position”, she maintained.
In his speech, António Costa highlighted the Iberian potential in the production of semiconductors, as well as in terms of production and supply of green hydrogen.
The prime minister also highlighted the electric mobility sector in terms of the production of vehicles and batteries.
“Portugal and Spain have one of the largest natural reserves of lithium. but we cannot understand lithium as the end of the electric mobility value chain”, he warned, later defending that the Iberian Peninsula will also have to refine and finish the batteries.
Source: Observadora
