Macron maintains his rejection of MidCat after Sanchez and Scholz call for it and asks to prioritize other interconnections

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PRAGUE, Oct. 6 (from special correspondent Laura García Martínez) –

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has once again made clear his rejection MidCat to link the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of the EU through the Pyrenees because he believes that electricity interconnections should be prioritized, just hours after the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, asked from A Coruña that the pipeline be operational in 2025.

Upon his arrival at a summit of more than 40 European leaders in Prague, Macron has stated that he has “spoken many times” with his Spanish and German colleagues, but that his position on MidCat does not change and that he sees the need for a “real strategic discussion” within the European Union on what should be the desired long-term model.

The French president has also denied that this new channel is necessary for the export of gas outside the Iberian Peninsula because “there is no massive increase” of gas to France, but “it is rather France that is exporting gas to Spain.

He has also argued that the existing connections are only being used at “50 or 60%” of their capacity so they are not overexploited and warned that, in any case, finalizing the MidCat project would take “five or eight years”.

“We have many interconnections, which allows us to export gas to Germany, now to Spain, and import electricity. There is a real solidarity,” he reiterated.

In this way, Macron has affirmed to be “willing” to contemplate “all interconnection projects” but has qualified that Europe’s needs have to do with electricity production and move towards a “strategy of renewables and nuclear”.