Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues and the president of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, Meritxell Batet Lamana, today inaugurated the 9th Luso-Spanish Parliamentary Forum, which will carry out an annual assessment and assessment of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Ferro Rodrigues recalled that the one-day meeting will also contribute to “help prepare” the Portuguese-Spanish summit, whose 32nd edition will take place on October 28 in Trujillo, in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura.

At this meeting between the Governments of Portugal and Spain “Portugal will continue to insist on energy interconnections”, said the President of the Assembly of the Republic.

For several weeks the price of electricity has been hitting successive records in the Mibel (Iberian Electricity Market) and government officials are worried about how inevitable this is having no increase in the household bill.

Ferro Rodrigues expressed “concern about the tension between Algeria and Morocco”, with the first country announcing its intention not to use the gas pipeline that runs through the second, which “may have an increased negative impact on supply and price of natural gas”.

In his speech, Ferro Rodrigues also referred to the “new challenges” in the area of ​​international security and defense, having been reviewed as stability and stability that have appeared in various parts of the world.

“In security and defense, we face emerging challenges, a reflection of new communication correlations in the international community and the impact of new critical and emerging communications”, said the president of the Portuguese parliament, noting that it is with concern that he sees “the fundamentals in question being called into question. which establishes the multilateral international order, based on rules”.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic also highlighted the need for the two countries to continue working to solve the problems of the border areas between Portugal and Spain, with “focus on issues of local depopulation, and the perception of distance from progress and economic prosperity and Social “.

“It is essential that the two countries are able to respond to the problems of interiority and the demographic challenge. Without expectations for the future of life, we will not be able to establish themselves as local places”, he stressed.

In his speech to a president of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batet Lamana, he referred to former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, recently deceased, as a “convicted European” who knew the importance of meetings as the present forum for advances in Europe.

This morning’s opening speeches were followed by three panel discussions on the common challenges “that Portugal and Spain face in Europe.

They are addressing issues related to energy interconnections, coordination in security and defense, complementary in the fight against depopulation and the demographic challenge, infrastructure, mobility, public services, economic development, digital innovation and environmental protection, as well as cooperation in education and culture.

The closing ceremony of the 9th Portuguese-Spanish Parliamentary Forum, in which the presidents of the two legislative chambers will speak, is scheduled for 4:30 pm (3:30 pm in Lisbon).

This forum has been held since 2009, regularly bringing together delegations from the two institutions.