<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Council of Ministers has sent this Tuesday to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament) the construction of the two international bridges over the Guadiana and Sever rivers agreed last October during the XXXV Spanish-Portuguese Summit.</strong></h4> The Summit, held in the Portuguese town of Faro (Algarve, in the south), concluded with the signing of eleven agreements on areas such as water, the environment or culture and with the commitment of the two Governments to ask France and the European Commission to facilitate the railway and energy interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. As regards infrastructure, Spain and Portugal agreed in Faro on the construction of two international bridges, one that will link the towns of Sanlúcar de Guadiana (Spain) and Alcoutim (Portugal) across the Guadiana and the other that will link the towns of Cedillo (Spain) and Montalvão-Nisa (Portugal) across the Sever River. Both agreements were submitted to the Cortes Generales on Tuesday through the urgent procedure. The Council of Ministers has also authorised the expression of Spain's consent to be bound by said agreements. The aim of both agreements, according to the Government, is to “improve the conditions for the movement of vehicles and people between the two States”, thereby contributing not only to increasing the traffic of people and improving human and economic exchanges between the two countries, but also to developing the cross-border areas that are located, on the one hand, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia and the Algarve Region and, on the other, in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura and the Alentejo Region. <h5><strong>Navigation and fishing in the Guadiana</strong></h5> On the other hand, the Council of Ministers has sent to the Cortes Generales two other agreements signed in Faro for the protection of river ecosystems and the management of water resources to guarantee the sustainability of socio-economic activities. Specifically, these are the agreements for the safety of navigation and recreational boating in the International Section of the Guadiana River (TIRG) and on fishing in the same International Section of the river. Both agreements were requested by the International Commission on the Limits between Spain and Portugal (CIL) in order to generate economic and social opportunities for border populations, in accordance with International Law. The regulations, classified as international agreements, were authorized in 2015 by the Council of Ministers and signed at the Faro Summit, whose central theme was, precisely, the shared management of water.
