The environment ministers of Portugal and Spain have commissioned agencies in both countries to prepare an agreement on the use of water from the Tagus and Guadiana rivers, the government announced today.
In a statement released bythe Ministry of Environment and Energy, it can be read that the meeting took place on the sidelines of the Council of Energy Ministers of the European Union and it was decided “to commission the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and its Spanish counterpart to prepare a proposal for an agreement, to be signed between the two countries, on the various projects for the use of water from the Tagus River and the Guadiana River”.
Maria da Graça Carvalho’s ministry added that the meeting between the Portuguese minister and her Spanish counterpart, the Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, also covered energy use.
The meeting resulted in “a principle of understanding to promote joint actions between Portugal and Spain, which will not only speed up Iberian electricity interconnections with the rest of Europe, but also adapt the Iberian Electricity Market (MIBEL) to the new rules of the European Electricity Market, recently approved”.
Both leaders “also considered it to be of the utmost importance for there to be greater bilateral cooperation in the environmental impact assessment processes for the three cross-border interconnection road projects,” the government points out.
The projects in question are the Alcoutim — Sanlucar de Guadiana Bridge, the International Bridge over the River Sever and the link between Bragança and Puebla de Sanabria, financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and whose development is being taken on by the Portuguese state, the ministry added.
