Madrid (EFE).- The Government has insisted on Tuesday that it is working with the European Commission to see how the maintenance of the road network is carried out without addressing it through payment for use.
This was stated by the Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers when asked about the Executive’s negotiations to exclude highway tolls from the reforms agreed with the European Union.
“What the Government is doing with the European Commission, within the framework of the development of the Recovery Plan, is to see how we approach the maintenance of the road network without addressing it through payment for use. A global plan that also involves more sustainable mobility, promoting other uses and other mobility, such as public transport and its gratuity, as we have done in recent months”, he pointed out in this regard.
Given the controversy that arose over the implementation of tolls on Spanish highways, the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, denied last week that the Government is thinking of introducing tolls for the use of highways, after the General Director of Traffic (DGT), Pere Navarro, said that Spain could begin its implementation in 2024, although he later regretted the “confusion” he had created.
Navarro’s statements came after the debate between the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the PP candidate for the presidency, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the latter told him that the Executive had sent a letter to the EU with the implementation of tolls.
Although initially the Government did commit to Brussels to study the implementation of a pay-per-use system for the highways “starting in 2024”, it later recognized that there was not enough consensus between the administrations and agents involved to promote it, so the initiative was parked sine die.