According to the Spanish Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, Spain and Morocco have started a new stage in the relaunch of the fixed link project of the Strait of Gibraltar.
“We are entering a new stage in the revival of the fixed link project through the Strait of Gibraltar, which we started in 1981 with our two companies, Secegsa and the Moroccan National Society for the Study of the Strait of Gibraltar (SNED)”, she said at the end of the 43rd meeting of the joint Hispano-Moroccan commission for the fixed link project of the Strait of Gibraltar, held by telematic means and which she co-chaired with the Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka.
Quoted in a press release from her department, published on Tuesday, the minister stressed that “the fact that after fourteen years, since October 2009 in Tangier, we have been giving impetus to the studies of a project of the greatest geostrategic importance for our countries and for relations between Europe and Africa, takes on political significance important ».
The meetings of the joint committee were convened following the high-level meeting held in Rabat between Spain and Morocco on 1 and 2 February, during which “the two countries reaffirmed their agreement to promote the studies of the fixed link project”observes the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
In this sense, the committee meeting validated the actions carried out jointly by the Spanish company in charge of studies, Secegsa, and its Moroccan counterpart, SNED, since 2009.
Under the conclusions of the joint committee, ”both parties encourage the visibility of the project and have agreed to address the development of an overall strategy and work plan for the next three years, which could include, among others, the analysis of the feasibility of the construction of a reconnaissance gallery to identify the geomechanical characteristics”, details the same source.
The meeting also coincides with the reactivation of Secegsa, after several years without a significant budget allocation, and the commissioning of studies to analyze the feasibility of the intercontinental fixed link for telecommunications and energy transport, the ministry said.
In this sense, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), adopted by the Spanish government, includes 2.3 million euros of European funds to update the studies related to the project.