The German Government has highlighted this Friday that there is a “great consensus” between Germany, Portugal and Spain to connect the Iberian Peninsula to the energy network of the rest of Europe.
There is a great consensus on the part of Portugal, Spain and also on the part of Germany that it would be sensible to create that link”, said the spokesman for the German Government, Steffen Hebestreit, at a press conference in Berlin, quoted by the EFE agency. , a few days before the visit of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, to Germany.
According to Hebestreit, this topic “has always been the subject of previous conversations” and currently “different ways are being discussed on how it can be done as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
“The wishes of the Spanish, Germans and Portuguese are very similar” on this issue, he said, without revealing whether the matter is on the agenda for Pedro Sánchez’s visit.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will meet at the Meseberg Palace [perto de Berlim] on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and will participate as guest of honor in the meeting of the German Council of Ministers”, reads a note sent to the press in Madrid by the Spanish Executive.
The German government spokesman said that the Council of Ministers will address several domestic and foreign policy issuesthat the first topic to be debated will be the national security strategy and that there will be “an international guest”, Pedro Sánchez.
Sánchez and his German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, are scheduled to hold a joint press conference on Tuesday, the same spokesman said.
Among other issues that the German government will address in the extraordinary Council of Ministers is the energy supply in Germany —at a time when Russia threatens to cut off gas shipments to the country—, professional training and the German digital strategy.
Scholz publicly defended on the 11th of this month the construction of a pan-European gas pipelinethat connects the Iberian Peninsula, from Portugal, with Germany, to allow the distribution of gas from sources other than Russia and thus reduce the energy dependence of Germany and other countries of the European Union (EU) on Russian gas.
Connections for the transport of energy from Portugal and Spain to the rest of Europe are almost non-existent and the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula have requested that gas pipeline construction projects be accelerated.
The objective is liquefied gas transportation (and also hydrogen, in the future), since, as an “energy island”, Portugal and Spain have developed infrastructures that allow the so-called European “regasification” from their territories.
In the case of Spain alone, 30% of the EU’s regasification capacities are in the country.
A few weeks ago, in the context of the war in Ukraine and the Russian threat, the European Commission also placed the interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe among the investment priorities in this area.
Sánchez reaffirmed this Wednesday “the determination of Spain” to progress in the gas pipeline project to the Pyrenees and unanimity with Portugal on this matter, but guaranteed that ties with Italy will advance if France delays the process.
“What I want to convey is, firstly, Spain’s determination to carry out this interconnection, secondly, the support of all the community institutions, firstly, the unanimous support of the two governments of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal and Spain, and thirdly, if plan A does not come out, we have to move on to plan B, which is the energy interconnection between the Iberian Peninsula and Italy”, said Sánchez.
“I certainly appreciate the interest of German Chancellor Scholz in this interconnection, but if it cannot be done due to difficulties in France’s internal politics, there is an alternative,” which is “to make an interconnection between Spain and Italy,” he added. .
The leader of the Spanish Government recalled that the European Commission itself defined the connection with Italy as “plan B”, in case the gas pipeline in the Pyrenees does not advance.
“From then on, what we want is for it to be financed with European money”, something with which the European Commission agrees, he added.
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Source: Observadora
