Brussels, 15/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 15 June in Luxembourg, the European Commission, France, Portugal and Spain formally signed the Memorandum of Understanding for setting up the South-West Europe regional group. This High Level Group seeks to improve connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the EU internal energy market.
This work group will prepare a plan to implement the so-called Madrid Declaration, signed on 4 March by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of France François Hollande, the Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy and the Prime Minister of Portugal, Pedro Passos Coelho. The High Level Group will deal with both gas and electricity infrastructure, ensure regular monitoring and implementation of major projects and provide technical assistance.
Two studies launched by the European Commission on the benefits, costs and technical opportunities of new electric and gas connections between the Iberian peninsular and the rest of Europe, whose results will be presented in the autumn and December respectively, will also be used to support the efforts made by the workgroup.
Insufficient interconnection capacity remains a major obstacle for the creation of a regional market in South-West Europe and has prevented Spanish and Portuguese energy companies from participating in the EU internal market.
Interconnection between the Iberian Peninsula and the EU internal market, however, has recently gained momentum - in January 2015 the Transmission System Operators of Spain, France and Portugal signed a common strategy paper to develop the electricity interconnection. Furthermore, in February 2015 the Santa Llogaia - Baixàs power line, which doubles the interconnection capacity (from 1400 to 2800 megawatts) between France and Spain was inaugurated.
The implementation plan to be prepared by the High Level Group will focus on the achievement of the EU's target to reach 10% electricity interconnection target by 2020. The current interconnection level between Portugal and Spain is 4%
The priority will be given to the under the Bay of Biscay project and the two electricity lines crossing the Pyrenees (the cables will be buried underground to prevent any detrimental environmental impact). The plan will also focus on the development of the so-called Eastern axis, which will allow bi-directional gas flows between the Iberian Peninsula and the French gas system. Furthermore, the implementation plan will also consider ways to eliminate the internal bottlenecks preventing the free flow of gas from the Iberian Peninsula to the French gas system. (Emmanuel Hagry)