Vitoria (EFE).- Euskadi, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia want to promote a “macro-region” that works as a “lobby” and is a “joint show of strength” before Europe so that the Cantabrian coast is not “relegated” and they are diverted projects to the eastern countries that will soon join the EU.
The presidents of these four autonomies -Iñigo Urkullu, Miguel Ángel Revilla, Adrián Barbón and Alfonso Rueda- have met in Vitoria at the initiative of the Lehendakari, who has chaired the Atlantic Arc Commission since 2020, to analyze strategies to promote rail connections , electricity, gas and hydrogen with Europe.
An unprecedented meeting between four regional officials who belong to different parties (Urkullu to the PNV, Revilla to the PRC, Barbón to the PSOE and Rueda to the PP) and who today, with the shared objective of preventing their territories from being relegated, have fostered an image of unity regardless of political differences.
They have thus decided to join forces to face the “shift of the European axis of influence towards the east” before the upcoming incorporation of countries from that area, with which the Cantabrian coast runs the “risk of being ‘out of focus’ in relations and strategic decision making”, warned Urkullu.
The Cantabrian Miguel Ángel Revilla has been more forceful in warning of the “danger” that this change of “focus” translates into “deviations of projects” from these autonomous communities to the eastern countries.
The rail corridor, a common demand
The timely development of the Northwest Atlantic Rail Corridor is one of the concerns shared by the four regions, especially after the French Government has delayed its arrival in Dax from 2030 to 2042 and has not set a date for the subsequent connection with Hendaye and therefore with the Spanish border.
For this reason they have agreed to demand that the European Commission and the Spanish government “make every effort” so that France fulfills its initial commitment, the Lehendakari pointed out.
Spain and the EU “cannot consent” to France putting a “cap” on community railway development, said the Cantabrian president, who assumes that Cantabria will be connected to the Atlantic corridor “through the plateau” although the real objective is to ensure that the union be for Bilbao, something of “pure logic”.
He also stressed that the Basque Country and Cantabria have joined forces with the central government to promote the Santander-Bilbao railway line.
The Galician president has defended for his part that the rail connection with Europe “passes through France and the Basque Country” and that it is necessary to work “united and with intelligence”. He also pointed out that Portugal is a “good, interesting and powerful ally to defend the energy and rail connection with Europe”.
“From Spain we must demand that France resolve this issue because it is key and vital”, a “priority” for these four communities, summed up the Asturian Barbón, who has assured that “they do not compete with the Mediterranean corridor”, but rather ask that they act in both cases “in parallel”.
Other issues were also addressed at the meeting, such as the hydrogen corridor, which is “worrying” because the European interconnection map contemplates the Mediterranean Union by 2030 but not the Atlantic. The lehendakari has claimed that both connections take place that year.
They have also talked about climate change and the demographic challenge, a field in which the four autonomies have agreed to exchange information.
Institutionalize the forum
Euskadi, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia want to “institutionalize” this forum on an annual basis and to extend it to Navarra and Andalusia, autonomous communities that are also part of the Atlantic Arc, together with various regions of Portugal, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France.
In any case, the lehendakari has assured, this initiative “does not intend to replace” any forum, such as the Conference of Autonomous Presidents, nor does it hide “any eagerness for competition” or to mark differences with other regions, but “to claim that the EU also look west.”
For this reason, the regions of the Cantabrian coast plan to take advantage of the Spanish presidency of the EU in the second half of this year to favor the recognition of the macro-region that could thus participate in international forums and be “more visible”. Without the support of the Spanish Government, Barbón has warned, “the commitment of the macro-region will not succeed.” EFE