Enagás Chairman Antonio Llardén stressed Spain's essential contribution and the key role of infrastructures for security of supply and Europe's energy transition. Spain is a strategic partner for the EU "in the transition towards a more competitive, resilient and decarbonised Europe", he said in Brussels, at the European Bridges event organised by El Periódico and Prensa Ibérica, with the collaboration of Agenda Pública and the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Spain's permanent ambassador to the European Union, Marcos Alonso, and Antonia Díaz, professor of economics and analyst, also spoke at the event, which included a debate in which MEPs participated and which was attended by parliamentarians, diplomats, European civil servants and representatives of institutions and companies.
The Enagás Chairman highlighted collaboration between Member States and energy interconnections as a fundamental axis for "progressing towards a stronger and more autonomous Europe", in the conversation moderated by the Director of Public Agenda, Marc López, entitled The Catalan contribution to the new energy map of Europe.
"The Barcelona plant alone, which is one of the largest in continental Europe, has a regasification capacity of 7% of the EU’s total capacity," he said. Llardén pointed out that Spain has more than 35% of the continent's total liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage capacity and highlighted the value of Spain's robust gas infrastructure, which has proven to be decisive following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He also stressed that Spain and Catalonia will continue to play a crucial role in promoting a decarbonised EU, with strategic infrastructure for the European project such as the H2med green hydrogen corridor, which has strong political and financial backing from Europe. This support has been demonstrated by the recent signing of the Grant Agreement with the European Commission to receive 35.5 million euros of EU funds for the studies and engineering phase of the BarMar and Celza interconnections with France and Portugal, respectively.
