Lisbon, July 20, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal and Morocco are to seek the involvement of the European Union and private energy companies in a project to build a cross-border electricity interconnector between the two countries, the minister for the environment and energy, Graça Carvalho, said on Monday.
At the end of a meeting in Lisbon with her Moroccan counterpart, Carvalho argued that the project should be considered «of European interest because it provides greater security of energy supply to both Europe and Africa».
On the table is a request for a meeting with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, to explore the possibility of funding under the next European financial framework, specifically through the Connecting Europe Facility programme, which will see an increase in its budget earmarked for investment in infrastructure.
«The budget in this area is set to increase significantly; the first step is for the project to be designated a priority,» she emphasised.
The possibility of an electricity interconnection between Portugal and Morocco had already been raised in 2016, when the two countries launched a call for tenders for a technical and financial feasibility study into a subsea cable interconnection.
At the time, during António Costa's first Socialist government, a declaration of principles was signed between the two countries in the field of electricity and natural gas.
The cost of the project, estimated at around €800 million, will need to be updated «because costs have risen significantly in these years», the minister for the environment and energy added.
This cost will also depend on the technological solution and the route of the infrastructure between Portugal and Morocco, with Carvalho acknowledging that «a joint Portugal-Spain-Morocco project is much cheaper, because the interconnection already exists» between those two countries.
«There are private developers who are working on a link to Germany, so it could also be a branch of a link that is already under construction. In that case, the Portuguese section would be cheaper,» she added.
«These are two avenues we will explore: European involvement and private-sector involvement,» she added.
Regarding the private sector's interest in the project, the minister stated that the Government has been approached by private companies and consortia of energy firms, including grid operators.
She said that a market consultation would be carried out «to see how the private sector reacts to being involved in a project of this kind».
Asked about the Iberia blackout on 28 April 2025 and the importance of electricity interconnections in restoring the system, Carvalho stated that «if Spain suffers a blackout, we have to start on our own, using our self-starting power stations. Spain, for example, had help from Morocco and France».
«If we'd had a connection to Morocco, it would have been another electricity pool, and so it would have been a little quicker,» she added.
Morocco's Minister for Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, described the meeting as productive on issues such as energy security, climate change and biodiversity, and expressed the two countries' shared concern to «reduce the cost of public access to energy on both sides of the Atlantic».
In addition to the interconnector, the meeting between the two ministers also addressed the areas of critical minerals and renewable energy, topics which are set to be revisited at a Portugal–Morocco summit expected to take place early next year.
CT/AYLS // AYLS
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