Between Madrid and Rabat there is good harmony. On the ground to support the government of Pedro Sanchez, the plan through which Marukus seeks to assert his sovereignty over Western Sahara. In the energy sector, gas and electricity trade has created space for cooperation. Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, confirms: “We are dealing with our friends and neighbors who are fully aware of the regional responsibility that we share.”
In the middle of the week of the thirteenth high-level meeting between countries, Ben Ali rushed to a room in the headquarters of the CEO of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations in Madrid. After the interview, he planned to meet his Spanish counterpart, branch minister, Sara Agesen: “We will analyze how to increase our communication. We have been meeting and dialogue very regularly, in a formal and informal way. This is the type of relationship we have maintained since 2021.”
In that year, the severing of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Algeria led to the closure of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which transports gas from the Algerian Sahara reservoirs to Spain, passing through the Marocas and the Strait of Gibraltar. After several months of infrastructure shutdown, gas began flowing in the usual direction: north-south, instead of south-north. “I would like to sincerely thank the Government of Spain and highlight the excellent relationship we have maintained since 2021, when Algeria cut off gas supplies to Europe, just a few months before the war between Russia and Ukraine, and we must work together.” For the minister, the relationship between the two countries “goes beyond market volatility or any cross-platform bias.”
According to Benali, Morocco’s biggest strategic move to escape the “middle-income trap,” which limits its economic growth to 3% of GDP, is low-cost, low-carbon energy, which, he claims, will allow it to aspire to 6% rates. In 2023, 42% of the energy generated in the country was from renewable sources. He comments: “Today we have reached 45% and we will reach 52% in 2027. The first 40% are the most painful, and Spain has gone through the same exercise.” To reach these numbers, the government has, since 2021, tripled investment in the energy sector every year.
“We are in the midst of an investment boom in this sector and there is a lot of room for Spanish companies.” The Minister estimates that there are 1,000 Spanish companies present in her country and 20,000 companies that export their services to the other side of the Estrecho River. He pointed out that “it is also happening in reverse, as many Moroccan companies participate as partners in projects in Spain.”
Ben Ali highlights two underwater electricity lines linking the two countries with a combined capacity of 1,400 megawatts. She insists that it works “both ways” and that there is a “third-party project that enhances connectivity.” During the major blackout last April 28, which left the entire Iberian Peninsula without daily power, Marucos, which normally relies on Spain for its electricity needs, shifted up to 38% of its production capacity to send power to reactivate the interrupted supplies. The minister said she was “happy” with the help she received during her trip to the north. “For the first time in history, we have bilateral trade in electricity and gas, and hopefully in the future also in metals and minerals,” Subraya said.
The growing global demand for strategic minerals – such as lithium and cobalt, essential materials for phones, electric vehicles and green electricity – can only be met if mining in Africa and the trade corridors linking this continent with Europe are opened, the Minister supports. The relationship between Morocco and Spain, the only relationship that unites the shores of the Mediterranean, will be a major access point, equally dangerous.
Last week, the Minister, together with his African counterparts, launched the Marrakesh Declaration, an ESG (environmental, social and governance) framework that sets standards that make mining projects in Africa responsible, sustainable and bankable. According to Benali, this initiative facilitates investment in this sector.
Regarding the United States’ insistence on using fossil fuels, the minister points out that her country’s commitment to green energy dates back to 1991. Since then, it has remained stable. “There are large geopolitical groups investing and allocating thousands of dollars in grants for research and development in the field of energy storage, batteries and grids. Morocco has become a land that integrates all these technologies.”