Portugal, Morocco push for EU funds, private investors for power link

A crippling power blackout in Spain and Portugal in April 2025 exposed the Iberian Peninsula's limited electricity links with the rest of Europe, helping revive plans for a Portugal-Morocco link ​first studied in 2018.

Portugal and Morocco will ask the European Commission to consider a long-mooted power interconnector between the two countries as a candidate ​for EU funding, they said on Monday, while also exploring ‌private-sector investment.

Portugal and Morocco will pursue two tracks simultaneously — seeking access to ​the EU's Connecting Europe ​funding facility, and ⁠testing investor appetite through a private-sector expression of interest process from grid operators and utilities.