“Macron who says no to interconnections said yes in Lisbon”
The Prime Minister, António Costa, said this Friday in Prague that Portugal will “persist” in the attempt to convince France regarding the interconnections, not least because “President Macron who said “no”” is now “the same ” who has said “yes” several times.
A day after the French President was predominant, in Prague, his opposition to a gas pipeline connecting the rest of Europe, namely the «Mindcat» project through the Pines, Costa, to the questioned whether Portugal and Spain will give up trying, they answered no, because they designed France, the proposal on the part of Emmanuel, including the proposal on the part of Emmanuel, including this project written ‘sins’, including “interspersed with writing”.
“I think it is necessary to persist, moreover because the President Macron who said “no” is the same President Macron who, in Lisbon, made a statement that foresaw both the increase in electrical interconnections and the increase in gas interconnections”, he said, referring to the Interconnections Summit held in the Portuguese capital in 2018, with the participation of Costa, Macron and the Spanish head of government, Pedro Sánchez.
According to António Costa, “the «no» of France is not new, but it has always been interspersed with «yes»”.
“Okay, now it’s in the ‘no’ phase, let’s hope it quickly returns to Europe, the Pyrenees, and recalled that this is a topic that has dragged on for many years, and the reality is now different, especially in light of the war released by Russia in Ukraine.
“It is well known that this issue is a topic that I would say already chronic within the framework of the European Union. Even before I took office as Prime Minister, there was a summit in Madrid [em 2015] where European Bank of opportunities and targets were interposed at the level of level, as prime minister and welcoming in Lisbon, as the President of the European Commission and the first Investment connections, the European Commission was defined was the first in gas and electricity” , he recalled.
Then, I maintain since continued, “in 2019, the Spanish regulators and studied considered that these interconnections were not economically viable, but today it is known that the “is completely different from those that had in 2019, because most of the countries” of the center of Novas, such as Germany, which are usually found in Russia today, on the one hand of new, if now new sources of energy, and also of new supply routes”.
“And on the other hand, there’s a new geopolitical reality, which I think all the countries in Europe have learned: it’s that we can’t be so dependent on one or two suppliers, because that obviously limits Europe’s geopolitical capacity a lot. So diversification is key,” he said.
The head of government then insisted that “the Iberian Peninsula is the region of Europe that has the greatest gasification of liquid natural gas, in particular Spain”, but this is also the case of Portugal, which has “the port [de Sines] which is closer to some of the main natural gas suppliers, starting with the United States, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago”.
“Therefore, we have very large comparative advantages for landing in our territory and transporting it to northern and central Europe, either by naval or gas directly by ‘pipeline’ when it exists. If we want to have more autonomy from the energy point of view, it is absolutely essential to increase as the whole of the Iberian Peninsula with”, reinforced, today what an “inter-european” idea wants too, being that they are also supported by the Commission itself. European.
Costa, who spoke to the informal press on European Union leaders who had a long debate on how the community bloc’s main response after energy prices, said “as concerns that France understandably has regarding the need to preserve the environmental values of the Pyrenees” , but advocated that it is necessary to find a “good balance”.
“We are all in solidarity with France in this sense”, but it is necessary “to find the right balance between preserving environmental values with what is necessary as we supply energy to the whole of Europe”, he said.
From the beginning of an infrastructure, and today the green coast is also a reality “clearly the new point is being built, and today the green coast is also a relatively reality that has learned to end in”. on the table in 2018”.
“And, therefore, today we must dedicate this infrastructure to what will be the country’s energies, but also allow the use in transition energies such as natural gas”, a future “that will be used in many countries by one, two or three decades”.
On Thursday, at the entrance to a meeting of the new European Political Community, which preceded this informal Council, Macron once again expressed his opposition to a gas pipeline connecting the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe, arguing that Europe should invest in the electrical interconnections.
Asked about the matter when he arrived in Prague, Macron begins by referring that he has “many times” on this issue, occasionally, that they are current, with connections being underused for export, and so far they are exported using gas to a project that would lead to “five years” to be implemented, keeping Europe very dependent on the eight waves of gas from third countries.
The French head of state said that there are already “many interconnections”, which allow France to “export gas, for example, to Germany and even to Spain” – two countries, in addition to Portugal, that have insisted on the importance of the pipeline -, and claimed that a current connection is underused, considering that this demonstrates that the connection project called ‘MidCat’ is not a solution that Europe needs.
“I support interconnection projects, but what does Europe need in the coming years? To produce more electricity on your soil and have a renewable and nuclear strategy. And do we utilize the full capacity of existing connections? No, we are at 50% or 60%,” he declared.
Furthermore, Macron continued, the gas pipeline project linking the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of Europe through the Pyrenees “will take five to eight years” to complete.
“And do we want to be a long-term big importer of gas? No, our strategy is mainly based on hydrogen. If it is already about, we must say it. The question that we must ask is whether we are going to circulate, oolysis throughout Europe, or rather, electricity to make electrically [para gerar hidrogénio verde]. It is a real strategic discussion that we must have. I believe that the connection between the project our priority is before an interconnection in Europe, and that is why I am more favorable to this Europa”, she concluded.
that Portugal and Spain are interconnected are highly celebrated in France and their commitments, specifically with Macron in Lisbon in 2015 -, and previously, in Madrid, in 2015.