Portugal and Spain sign bilateral cooperation agreements

"This was a particularly tough year, recovering from the pandemic and facing a severe drought and all the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, notably the energy crisis. Yet it was also a year that showed the proximity between Portugal and Spain. The excellent political cooperation between our two Governments has always allowed us to find the answers to difficult problems and pave the way to good solutions", claimed Prime Minister António Costa at the joint press conference with the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, at the end of the 33rd Luso-Spanish summit held in Viana do Castelo.

Promoting energy transition and security

António Costa noted the importance of the agreement reached for the Iberian solution "which allowed us to contain the impact of the rising gas prices on electricity prices, as well as the capacity to overcome the deadlock of the electricity and gas connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe".

The Prime Minister claimed that Portugal, France, and Spain need to present to Brussels the project on energy connections, where the executives want to work with the European Commission to identify sources of European funding. According to António Costa, the Governments of the three countries are working towards "following the meeting in Alicante on 9 December, present a joint project to the European Union, within the deadline, which is 15 December".

"But we will also continue to work together in other bilateral fora and with a huge sense of mission", the Prime Minister stated, explaining that Portugal will join Pedro Sánchez’s initiative with the President of Senegal, Macky Sall to launch a global initiative on droughts at the COP27 "because we all must unite in a joint effort to overcome one of the worst manifestations of climate change".

Strengthened investment in innovation

The theme for the 33rd Luso-Spanish Summit was innovation and António Costa highlighted three of the financial agreements between Portugal and Spain.

The first concerns the creation of the Atlantic Constellation, a constellation of satellites by Portugal and Spain that will be "a fundamental instrument for information, whether to monitor what’s happening on Earth, whether to provide essential data for scientific research or economic activity", he noted.

Secondly, the Prime Minister underlined an agreement signed to develop microelectronics and semiconductors, "where we should combine our joint capabilities to contribute to Europe recovering its strategic autonomy and not depend, as until now, on third countries’ supply of a technology that is fundamental to almost all activities".

António Costa mentioned that the Iberian Research Institute on nanotechnology, based in Braga, "will offer a decisive contribution due to the research it has been conducting and the knowledge produced in this Iberian strategy in the field of semiconductors."

Thirdly, the Prime Minister highlighted the agreement to set up the Iberian Centre for Energy Research and Storge, "which is being set up in Caceres and is the twin of the Iberian Research Institute that we visited in Braga today".

António Costa said that another important step was given which consists of holding the annual science summit in different themed areas, in order to "encourage knowledge and the joint work of scientists in Spain and Portugal".

"We supported an idea offered by the Spanish Vice-President Teresa Ribera on working jointly on energy storage. It is one of the major challenges we face and now that we are in the lead of using renewables, we should work together to face this challenge of how to store energy in a way as to ensure greater energy security", he further claimed.

Joint Crossborder Development Strategy

"We must create a new dynamic in this crossborder zone from a perspective of culture, scientific work, economic relations, yet also human relations", he underlined.

The Prime Minister felt that the Practical Guide for Crossborder Workers being created was "a highly significant milestone", "which sets down the rules for labour law in Portugal and Spain so that everyone has the right to work on either side of the border in a dignified way, with equal rights".

Boosting bilateral cooperation

"The agreement to build two roads envisaged under the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Facility that will allow Nisa to be connected to Cedillo and Alcoutim to Sanlúcar do Guadiana are two small-scale examples of huge importance for both regions", he stated.

António Costa also reinforced that "the greatest rail works of the last 100 years in Portugal, currently under way, is the corridor between Lisbon and Madrid and between Sines and Madrid" and that the Government recently announced the start of construction of the "first high-speed rail in our country, that will connect Lisbon- Porto to Vigo and will set the start of our process to join the high-speed trains. 

At the end of the summit, the Prime Ministers of Portugal and Spain launched the "Together we Innovate" joint statement