France will examine the MidCat project after the request of Spain and Germany

MADRID, 30 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Economy and Finance of France, Bruno Le Maire, has indicated that the country is going to examine the request to unblock the development of the MidCat project, the gas pipeline to carry gas from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe through the Gallic country.

"It is a very old question [...], but from the moment in which the president of the Spanish government and the German chancellor, representatives of two countries friends of France, make this request to us, we are going to examine it, it is an issue that we are going to examine", Le Maire told the press after an act in Paris, in statements collected by Radio Nacional.

In their appearance before the media in the framework of their meeting on Tuesday, Pedro Sánchez and his German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, highlighted the need to speed up interconnections in Europe.

Sánchez lamented that the interconnection objectives between the peninsula and the rest of Europe set by the European Commission are not currently met, being below 3%. "That is what we have to resolve, whether by France or Italy," he stressed to affirm that Spain "will respond to the call" of the countries that suffer the most from "unacceptable blackmail" in energy matters by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The MidCat project has been paralyzed for years due to its high costs and the hitherto low price of the Russian supply. There are still 226 kilometers of pipes to be built from the Catalan town of Hostalric to the French town of Barbaira, and Spain asks the EU to cover the costs.

For his part, Scholz has reiterated to Sánchez his commitment to a project such as MidCat, pointing out that it will also serve to take advantage of the potential of southern Europe in terms of green hydrogen. "It is the great task: the creation of a large European electricity network, with a future for hydrogen and now for gas pipelines. We want to do everything possible to achieve it," defended the German Social Democrat.