In a statement released by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, it can be read that the meeting took place outside the Council of Energy Ministers of the European Union and it was decided to "instruct the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and its Spanish counterpart to prepare a proposal agreement, to be signed between the two countries, on the various projects for the use of water from the Tagus River and the Guadiana River".

Maria da Graça Carvalho's ministry added that the meeting between the Portuguese minister and her Spanish counterpart, the minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, also focused on energy use.

The meeting resulted in "a principle of understanding to promote joint actions by Portugal and Spain, which will allow not only to accelerate Iberian electrical interconnections with the rest of Europe but also to adapt the Iberian Electric Energy Market (MIBEL) to the new rules of the Electric Market European Union, recently approved".

Both governments "also considered greater bilateral cooperation in the environmental impact assessment processes of the three cross-border interconnection road projects to be of the greatest importance", highlights the Government.

At stake are the projects of the Alcoutim Bridge -- Sanlucar de Guadiana, the International Bridge over the River Sever, and the connection from Bragança to Puebla de Sanabria, financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) whose development is being taken over by the Portuguese State, added the ministry.