Moncloa renounces gas passing through the future new interconnection between Barcelona and Marseille agreed last October, contrary to what the Prime Minister himself,

Pedro Sánchez

, announced at the time .

The reason provided by official Moncloa sources is that it is key to obtain financing from the European Union and that its rules are to only pay for new infrastructures dedicated to hydrogen and not for fossil energy such as gas.

In fact, in Moncloa they already call the pipeline a "hydroduct" and not a gas pipeline.

Sánchez assured, however, that it would serve to export gas during a transitional period to take advantage of Spain's regasification capacity, which exceeds a third of all that available in the European Union.

Finally, he has thrown in the towel due to the French position and the need for financing for the expensive project that, according to French gas operators,

can reach 2,000 million euros in total.

As this newspaper already announced on the 2nd, France has set a condition that only hydrogen transits and Spain accepts it in an agreement that will be formalized on the 9th at a meeting in Alicante between the three protagonists of the initial agreement.

Both the President of the French Republic,

Emmanuel Macron

, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez and the Portuguese Prime Minister,

António Costa,

will meet this Friday on the sidelines of the Euromed Summit of the nine countries of southern Europe, to try to detail more the project.

The president of the European Commission,

Ursula Von der Leyen

, as a symbolic sign that, as it is a hydroduct, there will be community financial support if the new infrastructure is built, which is still a long way off.

Official sources from Moncloa avoid advancing deadlines, but

in France they maintain from the outset that it will not be finished before 2030

, a longer period than the one initially managed by the Spanish government.

Moncloa has left the door open, however, so that if the European Union were to modify the financing rules for the so-called Projects of Common Interest (PCI), there could be a reconsideration, but they have ensured that their central scenario is now that only hydrogen passes through.

The commitment of Spain, Portugal and France is to present the formal request for financing before the deadline of December 15 to obtain the PCI label.

In Moncloa they also discard the alternative gas pipeline project that Sánchez had managed as an alternative to the Midcat trans-Pyrenees, vetoed by Macron.

This is the one that was going to link Barcelona with Livorno in Italy and that the new Italian Prime Minister,

Giorgia Meloni

, promised in her electoral program .

She will attend the Euromed summit, but not the previous meeting between France, Spain and Portugal.

Sources from Moncloa do confirm that the first bilateral meeting between Sánchez and Meloni will take place at the Alicante meeting, although they present it as a short and courtesy meeting.

The socialist leader places Meloni on the "ultra-right" and has been highly critical of his program.

However, in Moncloa they underline the importance of relations between the two countries and the affinity that exists in some matters such as the need to reform the energy market and put caps on the price of gas.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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