European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s call for greater EU “energy solidarity” during her State of the Union address could be difficult to achieve, as the Franco-Spanish MidCat gas pipeline project – on hold due to France’s continued opposition – already shows.
Read the original French article here.
In the face of skyrocketing prices, the EU Commission chief made 11 references to energy solidarity during her State of the Union address on Wednesday (14 September).
But one example where EU solidarity on the energy front is expected – namely the construction of the MidCat pipeline – demonstrates how member states’ interests can prevail.
Spain, Portugal and Germany have revived talks on the MidCat gas pipeline project linking Spain and France through the Pyrenees, saying it could allow the export of 7.2 billion cubic metres of gas per year to central Europe, doubling Spain’s current gas export capacity.
According to its promoters, MidCat would help connect Europe to Spain’s network of liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals, a move that would contribute to strengthen Europe’s energy independence in the current standoff with Moscow over gas supplies.
But Paris remains reluctant, saying existing interconnections are currently underused and that a new fossil gas pipeline is not needed in view of Europe’s clean energy goals.
At a dead-end since 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron told the press on 5 September that there is “no obvious need” to re-launch the project because the two pipelines that already connect France and Spain are only being used at 53% of their capacity, and work on the pipeline could impact the environment.
Experts also agree with Macron, saying that the 22-year-old project is just a minor interconnection between two cities that are located close to regasification terminals.
In January 2019, the National Regulatory Authorities of Spain and France decided that the project was not yet mature and agreed to halt it, pending further assessments.
The European Commission, which used to consider the pipeline as a Project of Common European Interest (PCI) eligible for EU funding, since then withdrew it from the list.
“It was a candidate project for the 4th list of Projects of Common Interest, but it was not included in the 4th PCI list after both France and Spain opposed its inclusion,” an EU Commission official told EURACTIV.
On top of that, the EU has increased its imports of LNG to counter Russian gas imports, and is in the process of developing 10 additional LNG terminals, including five in Germany.
Franco-Spanish talks
End of story, then? Not quite.
Under pressure from Spain and Germany, Macron said he would be open to talks with EU partners if a new expert assessment convinced him of the project’s usefulness.
At the extraordinary Council of EU energy ministers on 9 September, discussions on setting up a group of experts that would determine MidCat’s usefulness by the winter of 2023-2024 were held between the Spanish and French energy ministers, Teresa Ribera and Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Before the meeting, Ribera said that MidCat could be up and running in less than a year.
France should “think about how to help others”, she told the Spanish radio station Onda Cero in a recent interview.
Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, confirmed that he had been holding talks with Scholz on the matter for the past several weeks and even agreed to a plan B – setting up a new sub-Mediterranean gas pipeline between Barcelona and Livorno that would bypass France.
MidCat advocates also called on Brussels to help finance the project with €2 billion, but their appeal has so far been ignored by the Commission.
When asked about the pipeline, Commission spokesman Tim McPhie reminded that the project was no longer considered a European project of common interest (PCI).
Moreover, “fossil fuel infrastructure” are “no longer eligible for funding, but hydrogen is,” he suggested.
A hydrogen link?
Following this line, promoters of the project have sought to position MidCat as a proxy for the EU’s hydrogen strategy.
“It’s not something we invented, but rather what the RepowerEU plan says,” said Enagás CEO Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri.
Spain is becoming one of Europe’s new hydrogen hubs, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. And EU funding will “contribute to turning Catalonia into one of Europe’s new hydrogen valleys,” she told a forum in May.
France, however, seems more concerned with the project’s long-term feasibility, particularly as the EU’s aim is to gradually phase out fossil fuels.
Between France focusing on the project’s usefulness, Spain thinking about its economic interest and Germany scrambling for energy supplies, it is clear that not all EU countries are on the same page.
[Edited by Frédéric Simon]
