Luís Montenegro responded Monday to António Costa’s response to PSD’s criticism of the principle of agreement between Portugal, Spain and France for European energy interconnections, stating that the current head of government “will not be prime minister in four years”. mileage” of the project.
“The Prime Minister has had statements in which he is not telling the whole truth. It was the case with the reduction of 1000 million euros in pensions. Now he appeared with a triumphalist air about interconnections, and did not speak about the electrical interconnections along with Spain, France and the European Investment Bank planned. It is what interests the national interest, to create export capacity in our production”he said, at PSD headquarters.
Montenegro even believes that the Prime Minister’s attack on the PSD, namely Social Democratic leader Paulo Rangel, is “a sign that he is nervous”. “We want to discuss this decision in depth and serenity with the government, which is strategic. We want the prime minister to go to parliament to debate”he emphasized.
The PSD leader criticized the agreement, saying he will “make the port of Sines secondary”, stressing that “the two electrical connections through the Pyrenees are not guaranteed”. “We understand that the decision is very negative”, concluded.
António Costa was perplexed by the PSD’s criticism this Monday, accusing Social Democratic leader Paulo Rangel of not understanding the matter.
“I am absolutely stunned by what I have heard this weekend from the PSD and other people who had an obligation to at least be informed about this agreement. The PSD doesn’t really surprise me because 15 years ago it was against renewable energy and still is five years ago he was against green hydrogen and so it makes sense that he is against the existence of a green energy corridor,” the executive said, on the sidelines of a conference on digital skills at the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE).
In front of journalists, António Costa rejected the claim that Portugal would suffer damage from this agreement, mainly because electrical connections were allegedly broken.
“On the contrary, France even has the will to increase them. And last year an agreement was signed between France and Spain to advance the two electrical interconnections,” he objected.
According to the prime minister, it was not the issue of electrical interconnections that blocked an agreement between Portugal and Spain with France.
“What blocked the interconnections has to do with the gas pipeline. In Brussels, Thursday was about what needed to be tackled,” he emphasized.
Faced with criticism from PSD Vice-President Paulo Rangel, António Costa believed that the social-democratic MEP “has already become accustomed to a person who is not looking for means to say anything to attack the adversary.” fall”.
“He knows nothing about energy, he totally ignores everything to do with this deal and if you go through what I’ve said about anything and everything over the years, you’ll notice that the speed of disapproval from Paulo Rangel is very high,” he stated.
According to the Portuguese government, the agreement makes it possible to definitively surpass the old project, the so-called MidCat, and develop a new project, called the Green Energy Corridor, which will make it possible to supplement the interconnections between Portugal and Spain , between Celorico da Beira and Zamora, and also on a connection between Spain and the rest of Europe, connecting Barcelona and Marseille by sea”.
At stake, according to António Costa, is “a gas pipeline focused on ‘green’ hydrogen or other renewable gases and which can be used temporarily to transport natural gas to a certain part”.
The energy interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe have been discussed since 2009 under the auspices of former Prime Minister José Sócrates, then reinforced by Portugal and Spain, with – in 2015 – the then President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, championed its implementation to reduce Russia’s energy dependence.
In March 2015, Barroso’s successor in the leadership of the European executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, met in Madrid former French President François Hollande, former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the then chede of the Portuguese government. agree on ways to strengthen the Iberian Peninsula’s ties with the rest of the EU’s energy market.
“The previous agreement was a nice deal, but it was no accident that 2018 was reached without any steps being taken. And from 2018 to now no progress has been made either, after the two Spanish and French regulars failed,” he said. Antonio Costa.
According to the prime minister, recent years have been about reinventing the pipeline, if Portugal and Spain really wanted it.
With regard to gas, he pointed out that only Spain has “a third of the regasification capacity of all of Europe, with seven terminals, while Portugal essentially has one, in Sines”.
“Therefore, competition in this area would never be beneficial to Portugal. On the other hand, with regard to the production of green hydrogen and other renewable gases, since Portugal started investing in renewable energy sources earlier, Portugal has better conditions for its production today secondly, the port of Sines will continue to have the same capacity as it should already be a place for unloading natural gas – and nothing is affected yet,” he claimed, contradicting the PSD’s position.
Also in response to PSD criticism, António Costa stated that the Barcelona issue is “only now being introduced because it is the closest point to Marseille, which in turn is the point where the backbone of the European natural gas network ends”.
“France accepted that the obstacle of the Pyrenees had to be bypassed and that we would reach Marseille. From Portugal’s point of view, reaching Spain is fundamental and Spain reaching France is decisive for us,” he argues.
The question for Portugal, according to the executive’s leader, is that the planned connection to transport only natural gas “could serve mainly for the transport of energy that Portugal can produce”.
“I find it very difficult to understand the reluctance,” he added.
Source: DN
