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Rabat – Spanish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Susana Solis Perez addressed a letter to the European Commission to warn against Algeria’s use of energy supplies as a “political weapon.”
The MEP’s letter recalled recent updates, which saw Algeria’s reluctance to renew a 25-year old contract on the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (MGE), which supplied Europe with gas from Algeria through Morocco.
“The Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (MGE) links Algerian gas fields via Morocco with Spanish and Portuguese gas grids. The pipeline cost EUR 2.3 billion and it came on steam in 1996. Before the pipeline ceased operating in October 2021, it mainly supplied Spain and Portugal as well as Morocco, with natural gas,” Perez said.
Algeria announced the termination of the contract on the same day of its expiration on October 31, 2021, claiming that the decision will not impact its supply to Spain. Algeria also decided to use its Medgaz pipeline to supply Europe with gas instead of using the Maghreb-Europe pipeline.
The decision came a month after the country’s announcement to cut ties with Morocco in August of that same year. Algeria justified its decision by claiming that Morocco caused the wildfires in the Kabylie region. The fires were triggered by rising temperatures last summer.
Morocco rejected the accusations against it, describing them as unfounded allegations and fallacies.
“Following the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Algeria and Morocco in August 2021, Algeria decided not to renew the 25-year MGE operation contract. This reduced the quantity of gas that Europe was receiving and contributed to increasing energy prices,” the Spanish MEP said.
Perez also recalled Algeria’s hostility toward Spain following the European country’s decision to endorse Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the “most serious and credible” basis to end the Western Sahara dispute.
“As a result of the Spanish Government’s recent statements on Western Sahara, Algeria increased the price of gas supplies to Spain through the Medgaz pipeline. This price increase has added to the dramatic consequences that the Spanish Government’s erratic economic and energy policies are having on people,” she said.
In her letter to the commission, Perez sees that Algeria’s regime uses energy supplies as a “political weapon,”warning that this has “direct consequences for EU citizens.”
The MEP concluded her letter by asking the EU Commission whether it still considers Algeria to be a “reliable partner” in terms of energy supplies and whether the commission considered the “possibility that Algeria is acting at the behest of Russia in order to worsen the EU energy crisis.”
Perez is not the first MEP to express concerns about the growing relations between Algeria and Russia.
Recently, 17 members of the European Parliament expressed their “deep” concern about the “ever-growing” ties between the two countries amid the Ukraine crisis.
“Algeria joined Syria and 23 other members in a vote against excluding Russia from the UN Human Rights Council,” the MEP warned, stressing that this decision reflects Algeria’s “support for Moscow’s geopolitical aspirations.”
The MEP also recalled the extravagant spending on Russia’s arms, stressing that the Algerian regime is now among the top four buyers of Russian arms worldwide.
The spending would only “further enable Russia’s war machine in Ukraine.”
The same concerns were echoed by US congresspeople, who in September called on the US government to sanction the Algerian government for its purchase of Russian arms.
