The Aragonese MEP of the PSOE, Rosa Serrano, celebrated this Tuesday that the European Parliament has incorporated the initiatives of the Group of Socialists and Democrats that allow, among other objectives, the Central Crossing of the Pyrenees to receive more funding.
Serrano made these remarks after the European Transport Committee approved the new Connecting Europe Facility mechanism. The Aragonese has served as rapporteur for the socialist group in this body and has recalled that "I have worked to strengthen this strategic financial instrument of the European Union," as she already said six months ago.
The approved document introduces relevant advances driven by the Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) to strengthen the resources earmarked for transport infrastructure and speed up the implementation of cross-border projects, of which Spain will be one of the main beneficiaries.
At the same time, Rosa Serrano has addressed this issue in the meeting she held this Tuesday with Cyril Piquemal, France's ambassador to the European Union. Both called for progress on key projects for Aragon, such as the TCP and Canfranc.
The MEP emphasized that this step forward is "especially relevant for Spain," due to the accumulated delays in rail connections with France. "We cannot allow borders to continue being bottlenecks for European rail transport. We need more investment, but also a firm and real political will from all Member States to complete the European corridors," she argued.
With this agreement, the socialists have managed to introduce new European governance mechanisms to strengthen the binding nature of these projects and ensure that all Member States respect their implementation commitments. Specifically, the report makes the receipt of European funds subject to the adoption of the implementing acts for the corridors of the Trans-European Transport Network (RTE-T) and conditions the approval of the work programmes of the CEF on the prior adoption of those acts.
The text also includes strategic connections for Spain in the Atlantic and Mediterranean corridors, as well as projects from the global network considered key, such as Pau-Canfranc-Zaragoza and the Central Crossing of the Pyrenees, among others.
Also, the report proposes increasing the budget of the Connecting Europe Mechanism to €91,287 million, compared with the €81,428 million initially proposed by the European Commission. Of that amount, €37,961 million would go to transport, €33,534 million to energy, and €19,788 million to military mobility.
Serrano has especially highlighted the agreement to raise from 50% to 60% the European co-financing for transport works and up to 70% in the case of cross-border projects, one of the central objectives defended by the Socialists during the negotiations.
"We have managed to improve the proposal of the European Commission and incentivize the execution of the cross-border sections with more resources, which are at the center of the European project. Spain will particularly benefit from this new mechanism, which will make it possible to drive strategic projects, improve our connections with the rest of Europe, and move toward more sustainable and competitive mobility", Serrano concluded.