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Marrakech – Morocco and Portugal have agreed to revive their electricity interconnection project, stalled since 2022, and to seek backing from the European Union, along with private investors, to finance the strategic infrastructure linking Europe and Africa.
The decision followed talks held Monday in Lisbon between Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leïla Benali, and Portugal’s Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho. Carvalho called the project “important for Europe and also for Africa,” while Benali described it as “very important” for her government.
Benali framed the project as a way to make energy more affordable by cutting costs for households and businesses alike. She wanted the two countries “to ensure that we decrease costs, especially the affordability of energy access” for both populations and several economic sectors.
A new link, according to her, would improve the economic competitiveness of both countries while reinforcing their energy security. The two governments, she noted, agreed to pursue European financing and private-sector participation in parallel to secure the project’s economic viability.
Seeking Brussels backing and private investors
Carvalho pressed for the connection to be recognized as a project “of European interest,” arguing it would strengthen the security of energy supply for both Europe and Africa and create a new energy axis between the two continents.
She announced that Rabat and Lisbon will ask the European Commission to classify the interconnection under a status that would unlock EU funding mechanisms reserved for strategic energy infrastructure. Reuters identifies that status as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI); other sources describe it simply as a Project of Common Interest (PCI).
The two ministers also plan to present the project to Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, to gauge whether it can be listed among Europe’s energy priorities.
“The first step is to be considered a priority project,” Carvalho told reporters, adding that the budget available for such infrastructure is set to expand considerably.
As a first phase, the two countries will open consultations with Brussels to assess its readiness to support the link and treat it as a European strategic project. “We have decided to first talk with the EC to see its interest in considering this as an important European project,” Carvalho told reporters after meeting Benali.
Two financing tracks will run alongside each other. The first draws on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU mechanism for cross-border energy infrastructure. The second involves a call for expression of interest aimed at grid operators and utility companies, meant to draw in private capital.
Carvalho cautioned that the infrastructure must be built at the lowest possible cost to spare taxpayers and electricity consumers. “We don’t want to overburden our consumers and taxpayers,” she remarked.
She indicated the government has already been approached by private firms and consortia in the energy sector, including grid operators, and that a market consultation could be arranged to test their appetite.
No decision has been reached on the technical design. Options under study include a direct submarine cable between Morocco and Portugal or a connection routed through Spain, which is already tied into the Moroccan grid.
A joint Portugal-Spain-Morocco solution would prove considerably cheaper, Carvalho pointed out, since that interconnection already exists. She also raised the possibility of branching off a private line under development toward Germany, which would lower Portugal’s share of the cost.
The cost, estimated at roughly €800 million (MAD 8.5 billion) in earlier studies, will have to be updated to reflect the chosen technology and route.
Read also: Morocco, France Launch Electric Interconnection Project Across Mediterranean
The project dates back to June 2016, when the two governments launched a technical and financial feasibility study for a submarine cable. In May 2018, grid operators REN and Morocco’s National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) were tasked with preparing a preliminary design and a financing model.
A joint declaration in May 2023 then called for finalizing the studies and accelerating construction, with renewable electricity exchanges in view.
Renewed interest follows the massive blackout that struck Spain and Portugal on April 28, 2025, exposing the Iberian Peninsula’s weak links to the rest of the European grid. That interconnection capacity stands at about 3%, well below the EU’s 15% target for 2030.
A link with Morocco would give Portugal, connected only to Spain today, an additional source of power during disruptions. A line to Morocco, Carvalho argued, would have given Portugal an additional supply cushion and quickened the system’s recovery.
The meeting, attended by Morocco’s ambassador to Portugal, Othmane Bahnini, also covered critical minerals and renewable energy. On mining, Portugal took note of Morocco’s practice of pairing solar panels with extraction projects, an approach Carvalho hopes to fold into her country’s National Strategy for Critical Materials.
Benali described the talks as productive, pointing to a shared concern to lower energy access costs for populations on both sides of the Atlantic. Both files are expected to return to the table at a Portugal-Morocco summit planned for early next year.
