Under the terms of an amicable settlement facilitated by the European Commission that was announced on Tuesday 21 February, Spain has pledged to suspend its plans to store nuclear waste at Almaraz near its border with Portugal to allow consultation to take place between Madrid and Lisbon.
In return, Portugal has agreed to withdraw its complaint submitted to the Commission on 16 January following Spain’s decision at the end of December 2016 to approve construction of a nuclear waste repository at its Almaraz power plant, 100 km from the border between the two countries.
Portugal accused Spain of infringing the 2014 directive on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. This directive requires member states to conduct consultations on the potential cross-border impact on the environment of their public and private infrastructure projects.
Under the terms of the amicable settlement of the dispute between Spain and Portugal, Spain agrees to share with Portugal “all relevant environmental and nuclear safety information” and to organise a visit to the site by the Portuguese authorities and Commission representatives “as soon as possible”. It promises not to take “any measures that could be considered as irreversible”.
Additionally, Spain and Portugal have agreed with the Commission to speed up the work of the High-Level Group on Interconnections for South-West Europe, which is developing electricity and gas interconnection projects between the Iberian Peninsula and France.
The amicable settlement follows a meeting on the sidelines of the informal European summit in Malta on 3 February between Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, under the mediation of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
“Disputes between Member States who traditionally are allies should be solved swiftly in a consensual and cooperative manner. … We consider that this outcome is proof of the pragmatic cooperation and problem-solving spirit of the European Union”, stated Juncker, Rajoy and Costa in a joint statement, adding that they “are looking forward to working together with the other members of the European Council, to deepen the European Union further during 2017, notably on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)