The controversial Midcat pipeline is history. The leaders of Spain, France and Portugal have found an alternative that, they say, meets the same objectives and is feasible, something that was never made clear with the original project, buried today in Brussels. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, today agreed at a tripartite summit to build a new 'green energy corridor' from Barcelona to Marseille to transport hydrogen and electricity from the peninsula Iberian to the heart of Europe. There is also a commitment to strengthen electrical interconnections between the three countries.
"This is very good news," celebrated the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, after meeting with Macron and Costa. The three governments have agreed to continue working at the highest level on the project and give "more details" at the Euro-Mediterranean summit that will take place on the 8th and 9th in Alicante. It will be then that three key issues for the development of the project will be discussed: the deadlines for making the investment, the distribution of costs and the volume of resources that it will imply. "What we have done this morning is an important point of European solidarity and I will go to Spain in December to finish this project, which has the vocation to benefit from European funding," added Macron upon arrival at the Brussels summit.
The meeting between Sánchez, Macron and Costa was held this morning at the headquarters of the Permanent Representation of France to the European Union and lasted for an hour. The three leaders attended the meeting accompanied by their energy ministers, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, in the case of the Spanish president. The initiative for the meeting came from President Macron, who at the informal summit in Prague on October 7, called a meeting with Sánchez and Costa that he was initially going to hold in Paris last week. The meeting was moved to today, during the hours prior to the European Council meeting that begins today in Brussels and is dedicated precisely to seeking "European solutions" to the energy crisis.
France never viewed the Midcat project with good eyes and has not stopped questioning its economic viability and opportunity, since it judged that it would never be built in time to help deal with the current energy crisis and, instead, would reinforce Europe's dependence on fossil fuels . Spain said it was willing to study a maritime connection with Italy. In the end, that is the technique that will be used but the pipe will end in France. The solution reached is "coherent and consistent" with the European Union's commitment to promoting a green energy transition, as well as "solidarity and European", Spanish government sources stress.
The joint press release published by the three governments speaks of giving "top priority" to the construction of the new underwater pipeline, which has been called BarMar, after the cities it will unite. It is "the most direct and efficient option to connect the Iberian Peninsula with Central Europe", they say. The new pipeline, which would avoid crossing protected areas of the Pyrenees, one of the obstacles raised by France from the outset with respect to Midcat, is designed to transport green hydrogen but may be used for a temporary period to transport natural gas -a limited quantity , qualifies the statement- and thus temporarily compensate for the closure of the Russian tap.
The three countries have also committed to improving their electrical interconnections. Specifically, the statement calls for the "completion" of the infrastructure for the transport of renewable gas between Portugal and Spain between Celourico da Beira and Zamora, as well as for "accelerating" a new electrical interconnection through the Bay of Biscay and carrying out carry out "new" projects that connect Spain and France and strengthen the unity of the European electricity market.
