Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, who met this Friday with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez, suggested that France “definitely does not want to be isolated” in a common stance of support for the new Iberian gas pipeline.
“The three of us (Portugal, Spain and Germany) worked to ensure that France could once again show itself open to this solution. In the Council, she certainly does not want to be isolated in this common position,” António Costa told reporters. , assuming that the leadership of Paris was not always against this project.
The Portuguese Prime Minister added that there are now two “new arguments” that should convince French President Emmanuel Macron to support the Midcat project, a gas pipeline connecting the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of Europe through the Pyrenees.
“Infrastructure that can serve gas can also serve green hydrogen, and so far an important part of Europe, such as Germany, has been supplied through Russia,” emphasizing the need to find alternative energy solutions, rather than “depending on one supplier so much.”
To journalists after the meeting at the Federal Chancellery, Costa suggested that France would be a “natural solution” for the pipeline, not excluding “other, more complex and expensive solutions.”
“The Iberian Peninsula not only has the ability to produce renewable energy and, in particular, green hydrogen in the future. But also due to its geographical position as a point of discharge of natural gas from the United States, the African coast, Trinidad and Tobago. “, he recalled.
The meeting between Costa, Sanchez and Scholz will take place a week before the scheduled meeting of the heads of state and government of the European Union in Brussels on October 20 and 21 at the European Council summit, at which action is to be taken. in the energy market.
“This was a meeting in preparation for the next European Council where I hope we can move forward with concrete decisions on what is most urgent, which is to be able to take action that will permanently stabilize energy markets. We have to give both families and companies an expectation of what will happen next year,” he told reporters in statements.
The meeting also saw the release of a joint communiqué in which the three leaders declare their “unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
António Costa, as general secretary of the Portuguese Socialist Party, is currently hosting a meeting of leaders over lunch at the Congress of the European Socialist Party (PSE).
