Overview
- The Senate voted down the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation on Wednesday with 142 votes against, 106 in favor and one abstention, halting its ratification while President Macron was on a two‑day state visit to Madrid.
- President Emmanuel Macron said he could only lament the vote, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez apologized and promised the treaty will be approved before the legislature ends, and both leaders held a joint press appearance to manage the fallout.
- King Felipe VI used a Spain‑France business forum during the visit to demand a “new impulse” for electrical and rail interconnections and for planned hydrogen corridors such as H2Med/BarMar.
- The opposition Partido Popular and Vox defended the Senate rejection by pointing to concerns over reciprocal ministerial invitations to councils and to what they call weak, non‑binding guarantees on energy interconnections.
- The dispute puts concrete projects and wider EU goals at risk because Spain has long had very low trans‑Pyrenean electricity capacity, the Bay of Biscay subsea link is due to raise capacity by 2028, and stalled institutional ties could slow industrial and defence cooperation ahead of next year’s elections.