The Spanish government reactivates the tunnel project to link Morocco with Spain – Atalayar

For more than a century, the idea of linking the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar has been on the table for both Morocco and Spain, although it was not since the 1979 declaration that both countries conceived the idea of building a railway linking the two continents.

On the Moroccan side, the work that SECEGSA has been carrying out in Spain for more than 40 years has been entrusted to the Socit Nationale d'tudes du Dtroit de Gibraltar (SNED). On the Spanish side, the project has been "relaunched", according to the state company that is promoting it, which is going to receive a new allocation in the 2023 Budget to take the definitive step towards the start of the works, according to the Executive in the public accounts that have just been presented.

The project will involve the construction of a tunnel through the underwater seabed at the junction of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, while the government is trying to revive, with the support of Germany, the MidCat gas pipeline project, which was rejected by France during the emergency caused by the European energy crisis.

The Spanish company in charge of carrying out feasibility studies for the project is the Sociedad Espaola de Estudios para la Comunicacin Fija a travs del Estrecho de Gibraltar (SECEGSA), which is attached to the Ministry of Transport. This public company has recently revealed that in 2021 it was included in one of the European funds of the Spanish Recovery Plan to undertake new studies on this infrastructure, despite the tense relations between Spain and Morocco at that time.

In the 2022 budgets, another appropriation for that amount was already allocated to update the preliminary project for the so-called Europe-Africa Fixed Link in the Strait of Gibraltar. This transfer was made available after the approval in April 2021 of the Recovery Plan.

Following Pedro Snchez's recent change of position on Western Sahara, and in a political context marked by the progressive normalisation of relations with the Alaouite regime, the government has included an allocation of 750,000 euros for research into the feasibility of the project in the State Budget for 2023. A modest endowment, which is contemplated in the actions destined for the Trans-European Transport Network. The funds will be used to update a preliminary project that was drawn up more than fifteen years ago, incorporating the technical advances accumulated in recent years.

The latest SECEGSA accounts, recently published, correspond to the financial year closed in December 2021 and were formulated in March 2022, when Snchez's change of course on the Sahara came to light. In them, SECEGSA points out that "the most relevant event" of the 2021 financial year was the inclusion in the Spanish Recovery Plan of the update of the preliminary connection project drawn up in 2007, "with the consequent financing through European funds of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM)". There are 2.3 million committed, subject to "strict deadlines" that SECEGSA does not detail, according to ElDiario.es.

The update of this preliminary project is justified by the fact that "the technical and technological advances registered in the last 15 years in the field of construction, management, operation and maintenance of underground and underwater works represent a spectacular leap". According to the state-owned company, the meeting with the world's leading German company in tunnel boring equipment, Herrenknecht, opened the door to the acceptance of the project, which is no longer a utopia. According to SECEGSA, the various differences between the Spanish and Moroccan kingdoms over the medical care of Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali did not create a deadlock, and the relationship with SNED remained fruitful.

Due to the geostrategic nature of the Strait of Gibraltar, the EU pays close attention to the relationship between Europe and Africa. Although Brussels is interested in further developing the Europe-Africa rail network, it is not one of the EU's priorities.

Haizam Amirah Fernndez, Senior Researcher for the Mediterranean and the Arab World at the Elcano Royal Institute, is sceptical about such a Euro-African connection, saying that it is not the most favourable context, as the reality is that today, despite the years that have passed, these two societies are still active. The biggest problem "is to match political wills and create the conditions for opinions" on the part of two states "with relations of ups and downs".

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The Spanish government reactivates the tunnel project to link Morocco with Spain - Atalayar