MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The vice president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Portugal, Paulo Rangel, announced this Sunday that his parliamentary group has requested an urgent debate to clarify the new “green corridor” that would interconnect the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of the European Union through from France.
Rangel, also an MEP, has thus requested an extraordinary meeting to be held this Thursday, and which requires the presence of the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, to explain the energy agreement between Portugal, Spain and France.
For the vice presidency of the PSD, the Executive has not given an “illuminating and coherent response”, so that it has ended up opting for “rhetoric and propaganda”.
“The defense of the national interest does not go through soft rhetoric, without technical rigor, without the ability to clarify alternatives, deadlines and costs. In this matter, we must have vision and ambition,” Rangel said, as stated in a statement made public for his party.
According to the vice-president of the Portuguese opposition party, this agreement supposes the victory of France in nuclear electricity, while in “renewable energies Portugal loses”. In the case of gas and hydrogen interconnections, Barcelona and Spain win; and they lose Sines, and Portugal, he declared at a press conference in Porto.
In addition, Rangel has criticized the role of the Ministry of the Environment for giving in to French pressure to agree on a program that would benefit Paris.
“The Minister of the Environment (Duarte Cordeiro) has not been able to say why the two electrical interconnections in the Pyrenees were suppressed and abandoned”, criticized the MEP before adding that Cordeiro “could not explain why the Prime Minister gave in completely to the French nuclear energy lobby”.
In this sense, Rangel has assured that the “Government has defrauded the national interest”, and has indicated that the opposition “does not accept the Government’s propaganda”, reasons for which he requests the Prime Minister’s appearance.
The new maritime pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille – which sought to “surpass” the MidCat project that Paris flatly rejected – is called to transport green hydrogen and other renewable energies, but will also serve as a conduit for the flow of gas for a period of Transition. The new solution that unblocked the talks arose at the initiative of Spain in recent weeks, according to government sources.
