Spanish, French leaders meet to sign friendship treaty

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, talks with Spanish counterpart Pedro Snchez in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. A summit between the Spanish and French governments, led by their executive leaders, prime minister Pedro Snchez and president Emmanuel Macron, is held in the capital of Catalonia to strengthen relations between the European neighbors by signing a friendship treaty. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, talks with Spanish counterpart Pedro Snchez in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. A summit between the Spanish and French governments, led by their executive leaders, prime minister Pedro Snchez and president Emmanuel Macron, is held in the capital of Catalonia to strengthen relations between the European neighbors by signing a friendship treaty. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting Thursday with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Snchez in Barcelona to strengthen relations between the European neighbors by signing a friendship treaty.

The one-day summit in Barcelona comes amid a day ofwidespread strikes and protestson the other side of the Pyrenees against Macrons bid to increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64.

Snchez and Macron are to sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between their countries. Both governments consider this a diplomatic bond of the highest order. Spain only has a similar treaty with Portugal; France has them with Germany and Italy.

The leaders are seeking stronger positions inside the European Union. Macron is profiling himself as the continents leading politician to fill the void of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while Snchez wants Spain to have a more influential role in Brussels following the exit of Britain from the bloc.

After years of cordial but sometimes distant relations between France and Spain, the two have grown closer recently.

Spain, France and Portugal have agreed on a majorundersea pipeline to transport hydrogenfrom the Iberian Peninsula to France and eventually the rest of Europe. The pipeline, dubbed H2Med, will run from Barcelona to Marseille.

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Macron and Snchez also both want the European energy market to be reformed to respond to the energy crisis provoked by Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting is being held in Catalonias National Art Museum perched atop the Montjuic hill that overlooks Barcelona.

Several thousand Catalan separatists are rallying outside to try to energizetheir flagging movementto carve a new state out of this corner of northeast Spain that borders France.

The sound of distant jeers could be heard from afar as Macron and Snchez reviewed Spanish soldiers before the national anthems were played on arrival. North of Barcelona, protesters disrupted traffic on a highway.

Snchez has spent quite a bit of political capital in defusing the separatist movement, withpardons for imprisoned leaders of a failed 2017 secessionbid and recentlegal reforms. While that has succeeded in reducing tensions in Catalonia, there is still a hardcore group that refuses to go away.