The Diplomat
The Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, agreed yesterday with the Moroccan Minister of Infrastructure and Water, Nizar Baraka, to reactivate the Strait of Gibraltar Fixed Link project to boost the economic and social development of both countries and the integrated growth of the area.
This is what emerges from a communiqué issued by the Spanish Ministry, following the meeting of the Joint Hippano-Moroccan Committee on the Fixed Link of the Strait of Gibraltar held by telematic means.
The project to link Morocco and Spain by means of a permanent fixed link began to be studied in 1981 and although it would constitute a milestone for the Euro-Mediterranean transport network, both for passengers, goods and services, it has never made substantial progress.
In convening the Joint Committee meeting, Raquel Sanchez said: “It has an important political significance that, after fourteen years, since Tangiers in October 2009, we give a boost to the studies of a project of the utmost geostrategic relevance for our countries and for the relations between Europe and Africa”.
The Joint Committee meetings are being convened following the High Level Meeting held in Rabat between Spain and Morocco on 1 and 2 February, in which the two countries reaffirmed their decision to promote the studies of the Fixed Link project.
Yesterday’s meeting validated the actions carried out jointly by the Spanish company in charge of the studies, Secegsa, and its Moroccan counterpart, SNED, since 2009.
After several years without a significant budget allocation, Secegsa is endowed with 2.3 million euros of European funds in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to update the studies related to this project.
At the meeting, both parties also agreed to address the development of a general strategy and a work plan for the next three years to analyse the feasibility of building a reconnaissance gallery to identify geomechanical features.
If such a gallery is built, it would be possible to use it for telecommunications, the Ministry of Transport said in its communiqué.
