Spain and Germany have sealed this Tuesday an energy alliance that is announced to be lasting and that has already had a first consequence. France, which has so far opposed the project for a new gas pipeline with Spain, the MidCat, is going to examine this possibility at the request of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who are "friends ". This has been admitted by the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, in statements to the press in Paris.
"From the moment the President of the Spanish Government and the German Chancellor request it, from the moment our friends ask for it, we examine the request of our friends, of our partners," La Maire pointed out. And it is that Pedro Sánchez and Olaf Scholz, have staged this alliance in the Meseberg Palace, guest residence of the Federal Government of Germany to which the Spanish president was invited.
Sánchez and Scholz exhibited a shared vision that could make the Iberian Peninsula, thanks to the Midcat gas pipeline, a key transit route for gas -and eventually green hydrogen- towards the heart of Europe, in the midst of a strategic debate on how to avoid 'blackmail energy' of Vladimir Putin since Russia launched its war against Ukraine. And both leaders sent indirect warnings to France, who until now has been the main obstacle, which did not want to reactivate this project that had been parked in 2019.
"Spain is willing to contribute all its capabilities to help those countries that right now are suffering most from dependence on Russian gas and Putin's blackmail," said Pedro Sánchez at a joint press conference with Scholz in the palace gardens. Sánchez recalled that "Spain concentrates 30% of Europe's regasification capacities and we cannot use them fully and completely as a result of having a bottleneck, and that is what we have to solve, either with France or with Italy" .
In fact, the Midcat gas pipeline, which would connect the Iberian Peninsula with France and Europe, is an infrastructure that Scholz and his team observe with delight. The project could be revived if the Spanish-German tandem finally succeeds in overcoming France's reluctance, which uses technical, financial and environmental reasons to oppose it, although the conviction emerges that it is basically French interest in protecting its own energy market, based on in nuclear power. For this reason, Sánchez reminded the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as a warning, there is the alternative of building an underwater pipeline to connect with Italy.
"Spain is willing to show solidarity and respond to the call of our dear friends and brother countries, such as Germany and other countries that are suffering from Putin's unacceptable blackmail," said President Sánchez.
Beside him, Chancellor Scholz reiterated the German support for Midcat, already announced by himself at a press conference in Berlin on August 11. A full endorsement but assuming that it is a "long-term" solution. For him, the possibilities that exist in Europe to deal with the situation should be taken advantage of, and he said that Spain and Portugal are countries capable of producing a very important energy surplus.
"It is the great task, the creation of a great European network (...) and we want to do everything possible to achieve it," he added.
Scholz received Sánchez on the entrance steps to the Meseberg Palace, located 70 kilometers north of Berlin, in the Land of Brandenburg. His coalition government of Social Democrats, environmentalists and liberals is holding a two-day strategic meeting, which will end on Wednesday.
