Madrid and Paris will sign a friendship treaty on January 19 in Barcelona

Spain and France will sign a friendship treaty at their next bilateral summit, which will be held on January 19 in Barcelona (Catalonia), the spokeswoman for the Spanish government announced on Tuesday January 10.

"

", declared Isabel Rodriguez at the end of the Council of Ministers, emphasizing "

" which unite the two countries.

Treaty of Barcelona

On the occasion of this summit, the Spanish Prime Minister, the socialist Pedro Sanchez, and the French President Emmanuel Macron will sign "

", a- she added, without providing details of its contents.

This treaty will be the first of its kind between Madrid and Paris.

In preparation for months, it came up against a time, according to diplomatic sources, the differences between the two capitals on the file of "MidCat".

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Supported by Germany, Spain wanted to relaunch this gas pipeline project intended to link the French and Spanish gas networks via the Pyrenees, but came up against France's refusal.

The two governments and Portugal finally agreed at the end of last year to bury this gas pipeline and replace it with an ambitious project for the construction of a hydrogen pipeline which will link Barcelona to Marseille.

The project was launched with great fanfare on December 9 on the sidelines of a summit of southern EU countries in Alicante (south-eastern Spain).

A hydrogen pipeline planned for 2030

Operational in 2030, if the schedule is respected, and expected to cost around 2.5 billion euros, this underwater hydrogen pipeline, called "

" (or even "

", for Barcelona-Marseille), should make it possible to transport so-called “

” hydrogen

(because it is made from renewable electricity) from the Iberian Peninsula, which aims to become a champion of this energy of the future, to the north of the EU via France.

“

,” explained Isabel Rodriguez.

The separatists in power in Catalonia, a region which was the scene of an attempt at secession in 2017, called for demonstrations against this summit.

This treaty between France and Spain will be modeled on that of the Quirinal, signed in November 2021 with Italy, said former French Prime Minister Jean Castex during a visit to Madrid at the end of 2021.

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Signed in Rome by Emmanuel Macron and the Italian Prime Minister at the time Mario Draghi, the Quirinal Treaty provides in particular for areas of enhanced cooperation in the fields of diplomacy and defence.

However, it did not prevent the appearance of strong tensions between Paris and Rome last November, almost a year after its signature, due to the refusal of the new Italian government to welcome several hundred migrants stranded off the coast. Italian.