Urkullu requests an appointment with the presidents of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria to discuss connections with France

The lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has made a move due to concerns about the future of the connections between the Peninsula and the continent through the Atlantic Arc.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
07 March 2023 Tuesday 07:25
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Urkullu requests an appointment with the presidents of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria to discuss connections with France

The lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has made a move due to concerns about the future of the connections between the Peninsula and the continent through the Atlantic Arc. The head of the Basque Executive has summoned for the next day 13 in Vitoria-Gasteiz the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda; his Asturian counterpart, Adrián Barbón; and the Cantabrian president, Miguel Ángel Revilla.

The call has been announced by the spokesman for the Executive, Bingen Zupiria, after the press conference of the Governing Council held this Tuesday.

As he pointed out, the objective is to share "reflections and initiatives" on matters of common interest in the Atlantic territories.

Urkullu has made this call as president of the Atlantic Arc, and has conveyed to his counterparts, with a view to this meeting, his desire to deal with issues such as rail connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the European continent through the Atlantic area, as well as other issues related to the different transitions such as energy, digital or sociodemographic.

Zupiria has pointed out that there is "a concern" that has been going on for several decades that in this European construction the nations and regions of the Atlantic zone could be "relegated compared to other central axes" in the EU.

The Basque Government spokesman added that this situation is being affected by other events such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine or the energy crisis and "reveals a situation of interdependence" within the EU.

In addition, it raises "the need to articulate responses so that this Atlantic Arc and the nations and regions that are located in it do not lose the opportunity for development that is going to take place within the European sphere."

Urkullu's call comes weeks after it became known that France will not undertake the reform of the Bordeaux-Irun branch line before 2042, which would allow the Basque railway 'Y' to continue.

Therefore, once, after innumerable delays, the Basque AVE is a reality, it will have to put on the brakes as soon as it crosses the Bidasoa and, in fact, it will not travel at high speed until it reaches Bordeaux. The problem, beyond the times, is that the current rail tracks in the border area can cause saturation problems.