Hereu vindicates before Séjourné the objective of turning Spain into the industrial engine of southern Europe

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, during his speech

According to the minister, Spain and Europe need more investment and more innovation and, for this reason, he has asked for more European funds to continue developing industrial transformation policy beyond 2026. Hereu praised what Spain, one of the fastest-growing countries in Europe, is doing, showing that European funds are being used for economic growth and industrial transformation.

In this regard, Séjourné and Hereu were introduced to the TarraCO2 project, promoted by Repsol, which will be subsidised with 205 million euros from the European Union's Innovation Fund. The idea is to install an offshore CO2 storage facility off the coast of Tarragona that would be operational by the end of 2030.

They also visited other projects in the Hydrogen Valley of Catalonia, also funded by the EU, such as the Repsol and Enerkem ecoplant for the production of renewable methanol from non-recyclable municipal solid waste; the Repsol, Enagás and Messer electrolyser for the production of hydrogen using renewable electricity, or the facilities of CELSA, the first European producer of low-emission circular steel, which also plans to make significant investments in energy efficiency, emissions reduction and digitisation.

The Government, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Democratic Challenge, is committed to green hydrogen and interconnections to promote the roll out of this sustainable energy vector, which will be key for Spain to achieve climate neutrality, with a 100% renewable electricity system.

The Ministry of Industry and Tourism is strongly supporting decarbonisation, working hand in hand with companies, through the PERTE for industrial decarbonisation, which foresees a public investment of 3.1 billion to support industry in its transition to reduce emissions and adopt more sustainable processes.

The Ministry of Industry has already granted aid, between subsidies and loans, worth more than 450 million euros to 75 PERTE decarbonisation projects between final and provisional resolutions.

Tarragona is home to the most important petrochemical centre in southern Europe, responsible for 25% of Spain's chemical production and 50% of all of Catalonia. This means the maintenance of 5,800 jobs, to which must be added 3,100 indirect jobs and another 21,000 induced jobs in more than 1,500 auxiliary and service companies.

Non official translation