The APR would come into operation almost 30 years late, according to the European Union Court of Auditors
- The Court of Auditors of the European Union (TEU) warned on Tuesday that the Spanish State will continue to rely on land and sea routes for "at least 20 years" for the cross-border transport of goods due to delays and overruns in the development of the basic interconnections of the European rail network. These include the CAV High-Speed Train and its connection to the French state’s fast track. The auditors believe that this is a delay of three decades.
"Bearing in mind that the connection of the French part will not be planned before 2037, the Basque 'Y' will be a delay of at least 29 years in implementing the Basque Y with all its capacity," said Óscar Herics, one of the authors of the report of the EU Court of Auditors at a press conference. In that report, the 27 Member States committed themselves to evaluating eight "mega-projects" of the European network, as they committed themselves to making the high-speed rail network ready by 2030.
EU experts hope that the "and Basque" will be completed by 2030, but that its connection with the rest of the high-speed network in Spain will be ready at the same time "not very likely", among other reasons because the Milan-Vitoria connection section is still under study.
This would be a setback to the implementation dates of the APR by the Basque Government: in April of last year, at a public event held in Tabakalera, the Economic Development and Infrastructure Minister, Arantxa Tapia, announced that the infrastructure would be in operation in January 2024. In January of this year it went further, as it advanced in the day "Basque Railway" the price of the train tickets that would connect the three Basque capitals.
At the same press conference, he said it was time to "let the work be talked about". However, the report by the EU Court of Auditors once again puts the spotlight on the construction works that seem to have been destroyed.
Problems elsewhere
Those of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa are not the only problems identified in the report in their connections with the rest of the continent, as the report describes operational problems on the Eastern Pyrenees crossing between Perpinya and Figueres, due to the failure of the promoter and to a lower number of trains than planned. They have also warned that there are no forecasts on passenger volumes or traffic, and have criticised the fact that the state and regional authorities have not taken into account the doubts raised by several on the sustainability of the project.
For European experts, it is also "unlikely" that the other European projects analysed will comply with the implementation timetable. And they criticise the poor coordination between partner countries to carry out cross-border projects, where each state has prioritised its project, and the ineffectiveness of the European Commission, which is in charge of monitoring the projects to be implemented.
Cost overrun of 39% in the CAPV tranche
In addition to the problems of the CVT in the CVT, the report presented this Tuesday has analysed seven other projects in 13 Member States – France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Finland and Poland. In total, EUR 54,000 million has been invested, of which EUR 7,500 are from the European Union (EU) coffers.
The sum of the amounts spent on the eight "mega-projects" analysed has increased the budget originally planned by 47%, representing a total cost overrun of EUR 17.3 billion. In the case of the "Basque Y" and the move to the French State, it has so far been 39%, having to add EUR 1,825 million to what was originally planned.
European experts believe that the European Commission should have acted "more rigorously" to ensure that Member States meet the deadlines set for developing their projects. This is the long delay in the Basque Y, one of the assumptions in which the auditors consider that Brussels should intervene "clearly".
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