Following our meeting in Malta on 3 February and the amicable settlement of 21 February 2017, on the initiative of President Juncker, we have reached agreement on the Almaraz case. Our agreement relies solidly on a set of joint operational conclusions. These conclusions lay down the path for the implementation of the agreement and offer strong guarantees for all parties.

Thanks to the continued assistance and mediation by the European Commission in this process we have reached an agreement to the benefit of all of us. We commit to implement it faithfully.

In the spirit of good neighbourly relations all parties worked together constructively with the willingness to find pragmatic solutions. This is the European spirit of finding compromises for the smooth functioning of our common Union at its best.

We will make good on our shared endeavour to accelerate the work of the High-Level Group on Interconnections for the South West of Europe and we reiterate our strong will to further develop European interconnection projects linking our energy markets.

Background: The steps taken

Following a visit by the Portuguese authorities and senior representatives of the European Commission to the Almaraz site on 27 February 2017, the Spanish authorities shared a substantial amount of detailed information on the environmental and safety aspects of the project for a temporary spent fuel storage facility. The amount and the quality of the information allowed for the comprehensive evaluation of potential trans-boundary effects of the Almaraz temporary spent fuel storage facility.

On this basis, the Portuguese authorities organised a public consultation enabling the Portuguese public to access information on the project in the same way as the Spanish public.

The analysis by the Portuguese authorities resulted in a number of conclusions and recommendations in order to safeguard the concerns of Portugal regarding the potential transboundary effects of the temporary spent fuel storage facility in their territory. These recommendations were presented to the Spanish authorities and the European Commission services, which agreed with the issues raised. 

On view of the Portuguese report, the Spanish independent nuclear safety authority – the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) – informed that the measures the CSN will require from the operator will fully deal with the recommendations made.

In a reinforced spirit of cooperation, the parties have also agreed to continue exchanging information on the Almaraz temporary spent fuel storage facility. To this end, the Spanish authorities invited the Portuguese authorities to nominate representatives who will attend the annual information meeting organised in the Almaraz municipality informing the public on questions related to the operation of the Almaraz nuclear power plant. This invitation was accepted by the Portuguese authorities.

In addition, the Spanish authorities agreed to share with the Portuguese authorities any other relevant information about the temporary spent fuel storage facility to ensure access to information by both the Spanish and the Portuguese public.

Brussels, 29 April 2017

I think that today we will send a very strong message of unity of the 27 Member States, as we did already in Rome on 25 March, 2017 celebrating not only 60 years of successful history of our European Union but also the future of our European integration.

We will discuss issues related to our future partnership with the UK only at a second stage, including foreign affairs and security policy. But I can tell you already that the Brexit will not affect significantly our global work. We will stay, even at 27 in the future, the first market in the world, the first trading partner for all in the world, the first humanitarian and development donor and also a very strong the security and defence provider.

The UK contributes not more than between 3 and 5% to our EU missions and operations in the world. So the impact I expect on that is not that relevant.

But we will aim at a strong partnership for the future relations in a second stage and I am confident we will continue to work closely together also in the future.

See the video on EbS  http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I137774

President Juncker met on 29 April in the margins of the European Council the Prime Ministers of Slovenia and Croatia, Miro Cerar and Andrej Plenković, on the management of flows of persons at the borders between Slovenia and Croatia and they stated the following:

“We had constructive talks in a solution-oriented spirit.

We agree that EU law reinforcing the controls at the Schengen borders and the security of our Union must be applied and implemented. In this context, we welcome the fact that Croatia will have full access to the Schengen Information System by 27 June 2017.

The Commission stands ready to and will assist Slovenia and Croatia in providing effective and non-bureaucratic short and long-term solutions for the implementation of the systematic checks at the borders. Slovenia and Croatia both consider the Commission’s technical guidelines as very helpful and as a very good basis for their further cooperation.

Slovenia and Croatia agree that they will notify the Commission – in accordance with the Schengen Borders Code – of the decision to carry out targeted checks whenever the waiting time at specified land border crossing points between the two countries is longer than 15 minutes.”