France and Morocco Plan New HVDC Power Link

France and Morocco have launched a call for expressions of interest in a direct electricity interconnection between the two countries, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on 16 July 2026 at the close of the Morocco-France High-Level Meeting in Rabat. The project aims to identify commercially viable routes for exporting renewable electricity generated in Morocco to France, according to a French briefing document.

Moroccan media have reported that the initiative is being referred to locally as the "Pont de la Méditerranée" (Mediterranean Bridge), and would involve a subsea high-voltage cable running from the Nador area in northern Morocco to the vicinity of Marseille on France's Mediterranean coast, bypassing Spain and the wider Iberian Peninsula. If realised, the link would depart from the historical pattern in which Spain has served as the transit point for electricity flowing between North Africa and continental Europe. No official timeline, capacity target or investment figure has yet been disclosed for the project.

The France-Morocco route traces its origins to a concept first reported in February 2026 under the name "Qantara Med," when British developer Xlinks was said to be exploring a Nador-Marseille cable through its French subsidiary, Elemental Power, established in 2024. Xlinks had previously proposed an 11.5 GW renewable generation scheme paired with a 3.6 GW HVDC interconnector linking Morocco to the United Kingdom via a subsea cable of roughly 3,800 km, at an estimated cost of €29 billion. The UK government declined to support that scheme in 2025, after which Xlinks redirected its efforts toward continental Europe.

Technical discussions between the two countries have been under way for some months. In April 2026, Morocco's Minister of Energy Transition, Leïla Benali, met with Gérard Mestrallet, a special envoy of French President Emmanuel Macron, and Xavier Piechaczyk, chairman of French grid operator RTE, with both sides stressing the need for close cooperation to accelerate the project's implementation.

The interconnection announcement came alongside a wider package of cooperation agreements covering finance, civil aviation, education, culture and diplomacy, signed during the Rabat meeting. Lecornu said the talks were also part of preparations for a bilateral treaty between France and Morocco — which he said would be the first such treaty France has signed with a country outside the European Union — to be signed during a future visit to France by King Mohammed VI.

The proposed link would add to a growing list of projects connecting Morocco to European grids. Morocco currently operates the only direct electricity interconnection between Africa and Europe, a subsea AC link to Spain commissioned in 1997 and expanded in 2006, with a combined capacity of 1,400 MW. A further 700 MW Spain-Morocco connection is planned, while a Morocco-Portugal line — under study since 2022 and estimated to cost up to €735 million ($838 million) — has recently regained momentum. Separately, a proposed $30 billion subsea HVDC link between Morocco and Germany, which would be the world's longest intercontinental undersea power cable, has stalled over disputes concerning project governance and financing guarantees.