Circulating for free on the main Spanish highways has the months numbered. The general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, recalled this Thursday that in 2024 Spain must begin, "by imposition of Brussels" the process of implementing payment for the use of fast roads. Navarro referred explicitly to the recovery of tolls, something that the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, denied and placed the fulfillment of the commitment with Brussels in a consensus solution.
The current government negotiated with the European Commission to implement a toll model starting next year. It was one of the commitments established in the Recovery Plan and, therefore, a measure on which the receipt of part of the European funds depends. Navarro has stated that in the TV3 program "Els Matins" that "what I can tell you is that next year, by imposition of Brussels, we will have to put tolls, Brussels demands it of us".
"And this is indeed a great issue for an agreement between the two major parties, to prevent it from entering the electoral debate, which in the end we all lose," added the head of the Ministry of the Interior.
The Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, denied in the afternoon that the Government is thinking of returning to a toll model. Navarro himself joined these words and "deeply" regretted the "confusion" created by his words about highway tolls, recalling that the DGT has no direct information or competence in the matter.
The minister, in a public act in Pineda de Mar, did assume that "reasonable formulas must be found so that the cost of maintaining these fast roads does not come out of the State budget," she said without venturing any option, not even the payment by use, the one known as vignette. Sánchez concluded that "we will have to find a balance" but the formula to be adopted "will be agreed with the territories and the transport sector". At the moment, she stated: "there is no planned system".
In the negotiation of the Recovery Plan, the current Government agreed to move towards the decoupling of highway maintenance from the Budgets and charge it, totally or partially, to a model of payment for the use of express roads.
Spain is the country with the most highways in Europe. There are more than 15,800 kilometers, according to data from the Ministry of Transport. On the other hand, it is the nation with the fewest kilometers of highways and toll roads. Just over 2,000. Most community club countries have a charging model for using their main road network. From France to Portugal passing through Italy, among others. Germany does not have tolls, only for trucks over 7.5 tons.
"Brussels imposes, demands of us, to put tolls; it tells us the money that we are sending you is not for upkeep and maintenance of roads, it is for other things, with which you have to put tolls as a requirement if you want to receive more money", Navarro pointed out.
Raquel Sánchez's department had a pre-designed model in which she planned to propose to Brussels, before the end of the year, an initial vignette model, like the one that exists in Austria and Switzerland, and a pay-per-kilometre model, like the one in Portugal , once the appropriate technology is designed to charge the circulation of drivers.
Transport has even considered that it be a public company, Seittsa, which will manage the model of payment for the use of roads. These approaches are currently under review pending the configuration of the next Government. Brussels demands to have the toll model defined before the end of this year, not its final implementation.
