The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will meet this Thursday morning in Brussels with the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the Portuguese prime minister, Antonio Costa, to discuss energy interconnection issues, before a European summit, reported this Wednesday the Elysee Palace.
Paris continues to oppose the Spanish project for a new gas pipeline (MidCat) between France and Spain but is willing to discuss electrical interconnections and a “hydrogen strategy,” explained the Elysee before the summit.
“Find a solution”
On MidCat, “our position has not changed, this project does not present economic and environmental viability”, hammered out the French presidency.
“We have to be pragmatic and strategic, going beyond the MidCat issue to electricity interconnection issues and perhaps longer-term issues, including a European hydrogen strategy,” an adviser to the president said.
“This debate is not intended to respond to very short-term questions and security of supply for this winter or next,” Elysée also stresses, while the war in Ukraine is having serious consequences on hydrocarbon prices and could cause shortages. , as the EU is determined to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
“The prospects around Midcat were five to six years. These are projections for a horizon of 2030,” says one at the Elysée.
Source: BFM TV
