The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Germany on Tuesday to meet with Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz and participate in a meeting of the German government, his office said, at a time when the energy crisis in Europe is worsening due to the Ukraine conflict. .
The positions of the two countries on this energy issue have become much closer in recent days, with Scholz giving strong support to a priority objective of Sánchez, a gas pipeline project connecting the Iberian Peninsula with Central Europe through France in to reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian gas.
There are no details about the program at the moment.
The Presidency of the Spanish Government announced Tuesday’s meeting without giving details about its program, limiting itself to saying that it will take place in Meseberg, north of Berlin, and that Sánchez “will participate as guest of honor in the meeting of the German government.”
The newspaper El País, which was the first to publish this information, underlined the “special” nature of this invitation. Pedro Sánchez and Olaf Scholz are both Social Democrats.
A gas pipeline project postponed by France
Madrid has been advocating for years, but with even more insistence since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, for the construction of the Midcat, a gas pipeline that would link, through the Pyrenees, northeastern Spain with France and beyond with Central Europe. Launched in 2013, the project was abandoned in 2019, due to lack of agreement on its financing and lack of support from France.
Scholz, whose country is one of the EU members most dependent on Russian gas, spoke out in favor of the project on Aug. 11, saying it “would make a huge contribution today to easing and relaxing the supply situation.”
An alternative discussed with Italy
Sánchez raised this week the possibility of a “plan B” if an agreement with France for the construction of Midcat, that is, the construction of a gas pipeline between Spain and Italy, was not possible. The Spanish press believes that Madrid wants to rely on Germany to increase the pressure on France.
Source: BFM TV
