Valencian president calls for acceleration on Mediterranean Corridor project
Ximo Puig points out that “strangling the growth of the Mediterranean arc is strangling the growth of Spain and Europe”
Friday 18th November 2022 · Mike Smith
Source: Press Release GV
Ximo Puig, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, has called for work on the ‘Corredor Mediterráneo’ project to be “accelerated as much as possible”, describing it as the “axis of Spain’s prosperity”.
Speaking in Barcelona on Thursday, the president said that this infrastructure, which is one of the ten priority axes of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) project which will link Algeciras in southern Spain to Záhony in eastern Hungary, should be considered a “matter of urgency” because it will contribute to improving “the future of the entire country and not only the communities of the Mediterranean arc”.
He claimed that “strangling the growth of the Mediterranean arc is strangling the growth of Spain and Europe” and insisted that the infrastructure needed to be finished as soon as possible so that it would improve the “communication, competitiveness and profitability of our companies” to strengthen growth and maintain the welfare state.
The president criticizes the fact that “the weight of radial Spain” produces a “vacuum effect” of concentration in the centre of the peninsula, which he describes as being “very negative” for the whole of Spain. Thus, he advocates changing this “inefficient centralism” model and finishing the Mediterranean Corridor project as planned.
The Mediterranean Corridor is a strategic infrastructure for the Valencian economy as it will provide a connection with the European market which could be worth some 450 million euros, providing a more efficient route for the export of Valencian products which will become more productive and competitive.
Between January and September 2022, contracts worth more than 1,500 million euros have been put out to tender of which 900 million euros has been awarded. These actions are added to those carried out between 2018 and 2022 which have increased the length of the Mediterranean Corridor by 233 kilometres.
When finished, the Mediterranean Corridor will run for more than 6,000 kilometres through six EU countries – Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary – from southern Spain to eastern Hungary.
