Barcelona and Valencia join forces against ‘persistent discrimination’ over Mediterranean Corridor construction

The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the Mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, met in Barcelona on Thursday to sign a joint agreement and manifesto calling on the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Transport to take on its responsibilities in promoting essential infrastructure, such as the Mediterranean Corridor.

The Mediterranean Corridor is a strategic transport route covering 1,300 km and is seen as essential for coordinating transport in Spain, as well as for establishing routes that link Europe and the Spanish Mediterranean area. The corridor includes such important goods transfer points as the ports of Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona. According to the European Commission, the connection between the three main cities along the Catalan coast -Valencia, Tarragona and Barcelona- should be finished in 2020, but it is still lacking major public investment.

The mayor of Barcelona stressed that she considers the rail connection to be essential, as it would connect the South of Spain with the South of France, and further, to Northern and Eastern Europe. Thus for Colau, the construction of the route is vital not only for Spain and the Mediterranean cities involved, but also for Europe.

Meanwhile, Ribó said that Valencia could not become the traffic stop for Europe again, as had happened in the past with the highways. He warned that this could happen again in terms of railway infrastructure if the investment pending was not made in time. Ribó added that the manifesto was extendible to more cities along the coast, such as Tarragona, Castelló, Alacant or Murcia.