Cantabria requests support from the Committee of the Regions to include the Santander-Bilbao train in the Extended Basic Network
SANTANDER, 12 Oct. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Presidency, Interior, Justice and Foreign Action of the Government of Cantabria, Paula Fernández, has requested in the Plenary Session of the Committee of the Regions of Europe (CdR) the support of regional and local entities to ensure the inclusion of the Santander- Bilbao in the expanded Basic Network and thereby guarantee its execution before the year 2040.
Within the debate on the opinion regarding the proposal for a regulation on the review of the trans-European transport networks, which will be submitted to the European Commission for its consideration, Fernández Viaña has shown that the coastal regions of the Bay of Biscay “suffer a stagnation” , partly motivated by “a poor railway network that harms its competitiveness”.
As he pointed out, the current metric gauge railway “is not an alternative” due to the length of the trip and makes the Santander-Bilbao motorway one of the three most congested in Spain.
“If the underlying objective behind the revision of the Transport Network Regulation is to place European mobility on the path to a sustainable future, providing a train that connects Santander with Bilbao in a competitive time and doing so within the 2040 horizon is consistent with that objective”, the counselor affirmed before the regional and local representatives of Europe.
During his visit to Brussels, Fernández Viaña also met with the MEP Izaskun Bilbao, who confirmed the deadlines for the negotiation of the transport network regulation in this institution. “The rapporteurs’ report will be presented at the end of October and then the period for presenting amendments will open.”
In the month of December, a debate will take place in the transport committee of the European Parliament and it is expected that the report will be approved by the parliamentary committee in the first quarter of 2023, and will then be submitted to the plenary session of the European Parliament, which should debate and approve it. before the summer, explained the counselor.
Fernández has also referred to the work that Cantabria is doing to defend the inclusion of the Port of Santander and the improved railway section between Santander and Bilbao in the expanded basic network, with a completion date set for the year 2040.
The minister recorded that “this claim is directly linked to the completion of the cross-border rail connection between Spain and France, without which the rail section between Santander and Bilbao would be disconnected from the trans-European transport network”.
Fernández Viaña’s intention is to prepare “well-founded amendments that will reach the parliamentarians of all the political groups in the European Parliament so that they are defended and appeared in the rapporteur’s report.”
INSTITUTIONAL MEETING
The minister held an institutional meeting with the president of the European Committee of the Regions of Europe, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, with whom she spoke about the future Spanish presidency of the EU.
According to him, the president has confirmed his intention to develop alliances between the CoR, the Council and other institutions “that create a working habit that lasts beyond the Spanish Presidency, as well as his desire to have a physical presence in Spain under the Spanish Presidency through the holding of meetings away from the venue, seminars and other activities”.
In this sense, the minister referred to the two proposals from Cantabria “to give visibility” to the role of the assembly of European regions and cities during the second half of 2023.
He explained that from Cantabria it has been proposed to hold a course or seminar during the summer of 2023, linked to the Spanish presidency of the EU, which addresses the priority issues for local and regional representatives.
“The priorities of the Committee, such as the energy crisis or the future of the cohesion policy, may serve as a basis for determining the content of the meeting or seminar and the results may inspire the future work of the European Committee of the Regions, since an added value of the course or seminar will be the combination of the political approach with the academic one”, he maintained.
The minister has alluded to “how the Committee of the regions is perceived by European citizens” and has defended that all members “must bring the activity that we develop in the assembly in which our regions are represented closer to the citizens”. “The course or seminar that she proposed will undoubtedly contribute to a better understanding of the European Committee of the Regions by citizens”, she defended.
Paula Fernández recalled that the priorities of President Cordeiro, presented in his investiture speech at the plenary session on June 29, also refer to the future of Europe, thinking especially of the 2024 European elections.
The Presidencies of the Council are a priority for the president of the CoR and especially the Spanish Presidency due to the size of the country, importance and prominent role of subnational entities. “President Cordeiro’s objective is for the Spanish Presidency of the EU to leave as a legacy a Europe that pays more attention to regional entities,” said the minister after the meeting held on the occasion of the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions held this week the Week of European Regions and Cities.
On the other hand, he recalled that Cantabria has proposed a visit by members of the Committee of the Regions to the region on the subject of rural tourism during the second half of 2023, when Cantabria will celebrate its Lebaniego Jubilee Year, which It will be a central event in the rural tourism agenda of the region.
The objective of the visit is to analyze the state of the situation of rural tourism in European regions, after the COVID-19 crisis that triggered changes in behavior in favor of sustainable tourism.