Porto-Vigo link Euroregion’s ‘greatest conquest’ – Galician president

  • Lusa
  • 28 July 2021

The president of the Galician regional government said that the Porto-Vigo high-speed rail link was "the greatest achievement in terms of political momentum that the Euroregion has achieved in years."

The president of the Galician regional government said on Wednesday that the Porto-Vigo high-speed rail link was “the greatest political achievement” that the Galicia-Northern Portugal Euroregion has achieved in recent years.

“The rail link between Lisbon-Oporto and Oporto-Fronteira and Vigo-A Coruña is, without doubt, the greatest achievement in terms of political momentum that the Euroregion has achieved in recent years,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

The mayor was speaking at the plenary meeting of the Galicia-Northern Portugal Working Community, which today formally marked the transition of the presidency of the institution.

The president of the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N), António Cunha, succeeds Alberto Núñez Feijóo in leading the Working Community, which also presented the Euroregion’s Joint Investment Plan for the period 2021-2027.

“We are all very interested that the AVE [high-speed link] Vigo-Porto generates a continuous line between Lisbon and A Coruña that reduces travel times, for which the southern exit is essential,” continued the Galician mayor.

In a speech in which he took stock of his mandate as head of the Working Community, Feijóo expressed his satisfaction with the position taken by Portugal in defence of the Vigo-Porto link, to the detriment of the Lisbon-Madrid section.

“Fortunately, in my recent hearings with Prime Minister [António] Costa and President [Marcelo] Rebelo, I was able to see that The Portuguese government shares Galicia’s push for this axis,” he said.

In October, at the presentation of the National Investment Programme (PNI) 2030, the Minister of Infrastructures, Pedro Nuno Santos, said that the targets for the railways focused, among others, on the creation of a new one-hour Porto-Vigo (Spain) line, as well as the electrification of the network by 2030.

The new line that will link those two cities represents an investment of €900 million for Portugal and €578 million for Spain, for a total of 21 kilometres, Alberto Núñez Feijóo revealed at the time.

During the ceremony that took place today in Salvaterra do Miño, in Spain, the president of the Regional Government of Galicia also defended the improvement of the connection between Celanova (Ourense-Spain) and the Portuguese border, a project that implies an investment of around €9 million and that would contribute to improving the communication with the city of Braga, in Portugal.

On the other hand, the mayor defended a connection by motorway between the Gudiña station and Portugal, which would allow “the north-eastern Transmontano to enjoy the AVE by a motorway to the A Gudiña station”.

Among the investment priorities in the context of the Euroregion, the mayor also highlighted the rehabilitation of the international bridge between Salvaterra do Minho (Spain) and Monção, which foresees the enlargement of the platform to include a bicycle path and improve the connection between the two towns.

During his participation in the Community Plenary, Feijóo also addressed the impact of the pandemic on the Euroregion as a whole, which has suffered from the health challenge posed by covid-19, highlighting that a Plan for the Reactivation of Proximity Cooperation has been designed, proposing a set of projects worth €29 million under the ‘Next Generation’ Funds, for incorporation in the Spanish Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The mayor, who assumed the presidency of the Working Community in 2017, also mentioned that this border area was the one that managed to capture the most resources based on the 2014-2020 Joint Investment Plan, with a total of 85 projects for an investment of €163 million.

Created in 1991, the Galicia-Northern Portugal Working Community, which had not met face-to-face since May 2017, formally resumed work on December 28 2020, with the visit of the president of CCDR-N to Santiago de Compostela.