Pedro Sánchez and Antonio Costa sign new Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and Portugal

Trujillo (Cáceres)

For the first time, these Summits have had a theme, "For Sustainable Mobility". It synthesises and symbolises the areas of work closely linked to green mobility in which the two countries are cooperating intensively.

The annual regularity of these meetings gives a decisive value to the strengthening of the bilateral relationship between Spain and Portugal, neighbouring countries, friends and strategic partners within the EU, which have also decided to set up a follow-up mechanism, at the political level, of the decisions adopted to promote and materialise tangible results of the commitments and agreements.

In this Iberian framework of shared interests and brotherhood, President Sánchez and Prime Minister Costa have signed a new Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, which complements rather than repealing the previous Treaty signed in 1977 by former President Adolfo Suárez and former Prime Minister Mario Soares, when both Spain and Portugal had just regained democracy and were not yet integrated into the EU.

This updating of the Treaty fulfils the commitment made at the last Spanish-Portuguese Summit held in 2020, in Guarda (Portugal), after reaching the symbolic date of 40 years of validity and in view of the need to adapt the text to new realities that did not exist in 1977, such as the challenges of globalisation, gender equality, the fight against international terrorism and crime or compliance with EU legislation.

In this spirit of great cooperation, the Summit incorporates a Joint Declaration in which Spain and Portugal reaffirm their will to continue working as they have done so far to defend common positions within the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance, as well as "inclusive multilateralism" based on the "centrality" of the United Nations and the international order governed by scrupulous respect for international law.

The Declaration notes the excellent moment in bilateral relations between Spain and Portugal, strengthened by the shared fight of both countries against the pandemic and the common challenge of achieving a social and economic recovery aligned with fair green and digital transitions, generating greater gender equality, social and territorial cohesion.

Sustainable mobility

Pool MoncloaIn the design of this line of fair ecological transition and digitalisation, Sánchez and Costa also signed an Action Plan where four specific areas of collaboration are identified: Electric and Connected Vehicles, digital transition, Earth observation space programmes and satellites (Atlantic Constellation) and renewable energy and hydrogen projects, which include the joint projects of Spain and Portugal addressed by their respective transformation and resilience plans, financed with the NextGenerationEU Funds.

The Action Plan promotes the creation of a Green Energy Cluster for electric vehicles, the promotion and reinforcement of the recharging network, the development of an Iberian programme for the sustainable battery value chain and a Collaborative Platform in the area of Sustainable Urban Mobility.

The Spanish president welcomed the launch of this innovation ecosystem (or cluster), underlining its "importance in addressing the challenges related to guaranteeing the security of supply of the energy island" of the peninsula. The creation of an Iberian platform in the field of sustainability and renewable energies is also being promoted.

Both Pedro Sánchez and Antonio Costa have committed today to promoting an Iberian Centre for Sustainable Energies, which should have a development equivalent to the Iberian International Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga.

Spain considers the commitment to renewable hydrogen to be fundamental for the ecological transition. In this sense, it plans to create the Energy Storage and Renewable Hydrogen Centre in Cáceres, for which the Government will allocate 70 million euros of investment from the Recovery Plan.

Cross-border development

Pool Moncloa / Fernando CalvoThe Summit was also attended by the First Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for the Economy and Digital Transformation, the Second Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Work and Social Economy, the Third Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and the Minister for Culture and Sport, together with their Portuguese counterparts.

Their respective bilateral working forums have reinforced the realisation of the Common Cross-Border Development Strategy. Four Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) have been signed: for Cooperation on Road Infrastructure, for the Digital Agenda, for the restoration of the International Bridge over the Miño River, which includes the creation of a bicycle lane and a pedestrian lane, and one more on archives, referring to Democratic Memory.

The ministers also approved the Cross-border Workers' Statute and two agreements on the international stretch of the Miño River, one on Hunting and the other on Fishing.

In space programmes and satellites, it has been agreed to strengthen collaboration in the development of the high frequency Earth observation satellite constellation (Atlantic Constellation). It is great news that space technology is going to boost the creation of highly skilled jobs and the generation of essential data for new business models.

Non official translation