The European Parliament’s Transport Committee (TRAN) plans to approve this Tuesday the inclusion of the Central Pyrenees Crossing (TCP) in the future “Connecting Europe” funding mechanism for the period 2028-2034, as one of the five priority railway sections for Spain, which entails “a very important political and institutional leap.”
This was stated this Monday by PP MEP Borja Giménez in a media appearance in Zaragoza, in which he was accompanied by the general secretary of the “popular” party in Aragon, Ana Alós.
With this decision, the commitment assumed by the Group of the European People’s Party (EPP) since the start of the legislature with the Central Pyrenees Crossing becomes reality. The pact, reached during the talks on the annex to the draft Regulation, includes the five strategic railway connections for Spain put forward by the EPP.
The TCP is already part of the RTE-T’s overall network, whose completion horizon is set for 2050, and from the EPP they are calling for accelerating the pending technical studies and specifying the route of this rail corridor.
For the Aragonese MEP, this step “represents recognition by the European Union of the relevance and strategic interest of this project for the whole of the continent” and stops being an “aspiration solely” of Aragon to become an “objective” of the EU “due to its implications on the side of competitiveness and military mobility.”
Along these lines, Borja Giménez has clarified that military mobility is “a priority issue” in Brussels and that this corridor “could have fundamental relevance in the event that there were a conflict in order to guarantee the security and defense of our continent.”
In addition, progress on the TCP “opens the door” to the arrival of European funds: “The possibility that the project may be eligible for certain calls does not mean that it will be, automatically, but it is part of that list of those that may have access to European funding during the next six-year period.”
In this way, its inclusion on the list provides “political and European stability” to an infrastructure that “has been forgotten and serves to reactivate it in the coming years so that it is on the map of the interests and priorities of the European Union.”
The new Connecting Europe mechanism also prioritizes the protection of critical infrastructure, the modernization of railway traffic management and control systems, technological interoperability, and strengthening the resilience of networks in the face of natural phenomena, threats, and possible service interruptions.
Need for a third cross-Pyrenean axis
At present, rail crossings through the Pyrenees are concentrated at the Atlantic and Mediterranean ends, which creates a strong dependence on two corridors that act as bottlenecks. This third axis, Giménez has acknowledged, would increase responsiveness to incidents, strengthen competitiveness and logistics, and address a strategic vulnerability: "We are not talking about a regional whim, but about a European priority."
"Inclusion is a milestone that shows the unequivocal backing of the European Parliament for a key project for Aragón, makes it a strategic aspiration for all Europeans, and opens the door to receiving funding in the coming years," the MEP stressed.
Giménez has also valued the expansion of European financial coverage to the Zaragoza-Canfranc-Pau international line, incorporating in this latest agreement the section from Canfranc to Zaragoza. This line will make it possible to restore the rail connection between France and Spain, linking Aragón with Nouvelle-Aquitaine and, ultimately, the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of Europe.
In the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034, the Connecting Europe instrument will be geared toward projects with a clear cross-border dimension, complementing the investments of the National and Regional Partnership Plans.
Within this framework, the amendments presented by the PPE seek to strengthen the role of regional and local administrations in planning and consultation regarding major infrastructure. Likewise, they aim to pay greater attention to peripheral and worse-connected regions, to outermost regions, and to areas conditioned by geographical barriers, such as mountainous areas.
The purpose is for the needs of territories with the greatest connection problems to be integrated into the development of European networks and for pending cross-border infrastructures to advance in a coordinated manner.
Criticism of the Government of Spain for lack of momentum
For Borja Giménez, the TCP is "the gateway to the future of Aragon" and would mean "a complement, an alternative with the current Mediterranean and Atlantic corridors." However, he has regretted that the project has remained "absolutely asleep" and "accumulating dust in the drawers."
He has mentioned the "undeniable lack of commitment" on the part of France, but he has also reproached the limited involvement of the Government of Spain, which he accuses of acting to "please its independentist partners" and "not doing anything that could trouble or bother them."
"We know that they don't like very much the possibility of opening a third corridor through the Pyrenees and I think that is the reason that, on the part of the Government of Spain, I would say, from the Partido Socialista at the national level, there has not been a commitment to this project which, as I say, is fundamental for the future of Aragon."
Despite this, he has underlined that the president of the Government of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, has set out "to drive forward, put back on the map, reactivate and bring to life a fundamental thing for the future of our community."
PP's commitment to the Travesía Central del Pirineo
For its part, the PP-Aragón general secretary, Ana Alós, has highlighted her party's commitment to the Spanish rail network, which, as she has recalled, has been reflected in concrete investments.
She has recalled that the Government of Spain left earmarked in the 2018 budget the works to renew the line as far as Canfranc. "There has also been lobbying from the Government of Aragon, on the part of President Azcón, for the reopening of the tunnel. This same Saturday we heard him again demanding that reopening at the ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Bielsa tunnel," Alós said.
To this she added the importance of the Travesía Central del Pirineo, which this Tuesday will take a "first step" toward recovering infrastructure "demanded and strongly advocated." She emphasized that the TCP "was incorporated into the basic transport network thanks to the Partido Popular," but that it was the PSOE, with Pepe Blanco as Minister of Development, "which made it come out of that basic network."
Alós has concluded: "At these moments, in Spain we are experiencing the worst moment in our country's rail situation and we see that there is a lack of interest, the most absolute negligence and lack of maintenance and investment in the basic network and in the high-speed network, but throughout the entire rail network of our country. They have completely abandoned the defense of this rail axis connecting with Europe and our commitment --from the PP-- is to continue driving this Travesía Central del Pirineo".