Brussels ensures that Portugal has priority in EU energy interconnections

The European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson assured in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) that Portugal will not be forgotten in the new planned update to the EU’s regulation on Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E).

The promise was made in response to a question from Social democrat MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho, who recalled that Portugal “is a peripheral region, but has a high production of renewable energy, and therefore expectations to be covered by the interconnections that will be financed as a priority by the European Union.”

“Can we count on you not to leave behind regions like ours or the Baltic? Can you guarantee that we will be interconnected, and that we will have an interconnected Europe and an Internal Energy Market?,” she asked.

“Yes, of course,” said the European Commissioner. “In this revision of the TEN-E Regulation we will address the situations of many member states. And I was very happy to know that this revision will also be one of the Portuguese Presidency’s priorities, which starts on January 1. I hope this will help us find a good solution already in the near future.”