Portuguese, Spanish and German Heads of Government prepare European Council on energy

Prime Minister António Costa met with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the President of the Spanish Government Pedro Sánchez in Berlin to discuss the main European and international policies, namely the European Council of 20 and 21 October, the situation in Ukraine and the European energy connections.

At the end of the meeting, António Costa claimed that Portugal, Spain and Germany have "worked towards France being again open" to the pipeline solution linking the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe.

France, "around the European Council table surely won’t want to stand isolated in this common position", he said, especially since the French Government has had another position.

The Prime Minister added that there are now "two new arguments" to persuade the French President Emmanuel Macron to support the Midcat project, the gas pipeline connecting the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe via the Pyrenees.

"The infrastructure that can now serve gas can also be used for green hydrogen", he said, adding that "up to now, an important part of Europe, for instance Germany, was supplied by Russia" and now needs alternative solutions that don’t leave it "so dependent on one single supplier".

France would be "the natural solution" for the gas pipeline to pass, although there are "other more difficult and expensive solutions", he added.

"The Iberian Peninsula has the capacity to produce renewable energy, and particularly green hydrogen, in the future. And, due to its geographical position, it has the capacity to be a point of arrival for natural gas from the United States, the African coast, Trinidad and Tobago", he remarked.

The European Heads of State and Government will meet in Brussels on 20 and 21 October for the European Council, where measures for intervention in the energy market will be decided on.

The meeting in Berlin "was to prepare the upcoming European Council, were we hope concrete decisions will be taken on what is most urgent, which is to have measures that will stabilise the energy markets in a long-lasting manner. We need to offer households and companies expectations of what will happen next year", António Costa noted also.

A joint press statement was given at the end of the meeting where the three Heads of Government stated their "unwavering support to Ukraine for as long as necessary".