France, which has so far opposed the MidCat gas pipeline project linking its territory with Spain, is going to examine this possibility because the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the German Chancellor,
Olaf Scholz
, have requested it, who are "friends ".
This has been assured by the French Minister of Economy,
Bruno Le Maire
, in statements to the press this Tuesday during his intervention before the summer university of the French employers' association (Medef) in Paris.
"From the moment that the President of the Spanish Government and the German Chancellor request it, from the moment that our friends ask for it, we examine the request of our friends, of our partners," Le Maire pointed out.
"Spain and Germany are very close partners of France, so when they make a proposal we examine it."
Both governments have reiterated this position in Berlin on Tuesday.
The French minister also recalled that this infrastructure project "is a very old issue".
In fact, the two countries worked in the past on the possibility of building a gas pipeline between the two countries through Catalonia (MidCat) that would be added to the two that exist in the western part, but it was abandoned in 2019.
Two weeks ago, the French Ministry of Energy Transition indicated its strong reluctance towards this new gas pipeline, despite the declarations of several European officials in favor of the infrastructure in the context of the situation of historically high energy prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has underlined this morning the "total support" of his Government to MidCat as a "long-term" solution to the European gas supply.
"Security of supplies is part of national, German and European security," Scholz said during an appearance with Sánchez, who was invited to participate in the start of the extraordinary two-day German Council of Ministers held in Meseberg, on the outskirts of Berlin.
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