Macron, Sánchez set to bolster Franco-Spanish ties at Barcelona summit
French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Barcelona on Thursday, for a bilateral summit aimed at strengthening cooperation in the wake of a recent spat over a gas pipeline project that has since been shelved.
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France and Spain, who have just "buried the hatchet" following a rare disagreement over an energy project, will celebrate the closeness of their relations in Barcelona.
Macron is set to sign a friendship treaty with Prime Minister Sánchez aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation in multiple sectors.
This treaty is only the third of its kind signed by France with a European nation, following the 1963 Franco-German Elysée Treaty – since fully completed by the Aachen Treaty in 2019 – and the Quirinal Treaty, signed with Italy in 2021.
Thursday's meeting comes against the backdrop of massive industrial action expected across France in protest against the government's controversial pension reforms.
El jueves 19 de Enero se celebrará la cumbre hispano-francesa en Barcelona 🙌
— La France en Espagne 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@france_espagne) January 10, 2023
Se firmará el Tratado de Amistad que permitirá estructurar la cooperación tan rica que une a nuestros dos países 🇫🇷🤝🇪🇸
¡Para celebrarlo, os proponemos jugar con nuestro cuestionario #aúnmáscerca! pic.twitter.com/dVP9wQSuGb
'Midcat' pipeline project scrapped
The summit comes three months after France, Spain and Portugal agreed to shelve the contentious "Midcat" gas pipeline project – which Paris opposed – and replace it with a "green" hydrogen pipeline linking Barcelona to Marseille.
A Spanish government spokesperson underlined that Barcelona was chosen as the venue for the summit "because it is going to be at the centre of this strategic project."
Supported by Germany, Spain wanted to relaunch the trans-Pyrenean Midcat project to transport gas arriving at its many liquefied natural gas terminals to northern Europe, following a halt in Russian gas supplies.
Yet, despite the energy crisis, Spain's left-wing government failed to change Paris' mind
Supported by Brussels, both Spain and France finally agreed on the "H2Med" pipeline which will bring hydrogen made from renewable electricity from the Iberian Peninsula – which aims to become a world leader in green energy – to the northern EU by 2030 at a cost of €2.5 billion.
Disagreements with Berlin
Like the recent Quirinal agreement, the Barcelona Treaty is ultimately intended to set in stone the strengthening of Paris' relations with neighbours other than Germany.
However, the Franco-Italian treaty did not prevent the emergence of tensions between Paris and Rome last November, due to the new Italian government's refusal to take in several hundred migrants stranded off the Italian coast.
Meanwhile, relations between Paris and Berlin have suffered recently from a number of disputes – from energy to defence – leading to the postponement of the Franco-German Council of Ministers meeting scheduled for late October.
Tensions have since eased and the meeting is due to take place on 22 January in Paris – a symbolic date which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty.
⬛️⬜️📢 Cap Estat colonitzador serà la tomba de la nostra nació. Cap teatre polític farà creure que l'independentisme és mort.
— Assemblea Nacional Catalana (@assemblea) January 10, 2023
🗓 19 de gener
📍 MNAC, Barcelona#19G Mobilitzem-nos! pic.twitter.com/YJiFT2lT4M
Independence demonstrations in Catalonia
Apart from the importance of the hydrogen pipeline, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez chose Barcelona as a venue for Thursday's summit to show that the volatile political situation in Catalonia has calmed down, since pro-independence supporters attempted to secede from Spain in 2017.
Since coming to power in 2018, Sánchez, has made appeasing Catalans one of his top priorities.
He has resumed dialogue with some of the pro-independence factions that support his executive in parliament and has pardoned separatist leaders sentenced to prison for their role in the events of six years ago.
But while Catalonia's pro-independence president, Pere Aragonès, will attend the summit, his party and other separatist organisations will simultaneously demonstrate against the signing of the Barcelona Treaty outside the summit venue.
"No colonising state will be the tomb of our nation," the pro-independence ANC association said on Twitter.
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