After many months of disagreements, push and pull, the governments of Spain, France and Portugal reached a preliminary agreement on Thursday to multiply energy connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the continent.

The pact represents a notable change with respect to the plan that the south claimed from Paris, since it contemplates the abandonment of the Midcat project and its replacement by a "green energy corridor" to link the peninsula to the European market.

"We have proposed the Barcelona-Marseille alternative, a pipeline for hydrogen and for the gas transition that is needed," explained President Pedro Sánchez at the conclusion of the three-way meeting held in Brussels.

The news, totally unexpected, comes minutes before an important European Council in which the possible in-depth intervention of the energy market must be addressed.

In Prague two weeks ago, the leaders of Madrid, Paris and Lisbon met to discuss the issue in depth, shortly after Antonio Costa and Sánchez planned to travel together to Berlin to join forces with Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz.

Macron has been deeply reluctant to the idea of ​​the Midcat since last year, colliding with Moncloa but also with Berlin.

He said that it was very expensive, environmentally unsustainable, that it would not help in the current crisis and that, furthermore, the existing interconnections were not at their maximum capacity, so another tube was not necessary.

After a lot of pressure, from the south but also from an overwhelmed Germany, the Elysee seems to have accepted an alternative.

"I am very satisfied," said the Portuguese prime minister.

In the coming weeks the technical work should start and at the beginning of December there will be a new political impetus.

"We have agreed to another meeting of leaders on December 8 and 9 in Alicante, where the Euromed summit will be held, the 9 Mediterranean partners, and the 3 of us will continue working there to respond to three aspects", explained the Spaniard: "the deadlines for the investment, the distribution of costs and the volume of resources that we have to involve to make a reality of a demand that we have been making to the French Government for years. I want to thank the openness of the French Government and Macron, and the solidarity, support and work with Costa. This is very good news for Spain, Portugal, France and fundamentally Europe.

The sherpas of the three, their trusted people for European affairs, are finalizing a joint statement with more details.

Sánchez, meanwhile, has indicated that he has also committed to Portugal to "work on a second pillar of the Iberian solution. Regulate all electricity storage. There would be a second pillar that we are convinced will scale in the not too distant future to have a reserve and build electricity storage regulation on the Peninsula. We will be more autonomous and resilient," he promised.

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