The European Commission will proceed to evaluate the commitment to implement pay-per-use on Spanish roads, to which the Government committed in the Recovery Plan, in 2024, when the future Executive requests the tranche of funds linked to the milestone. In other words, at this time Brussels refers to what was agreed in 2021 and clarifies that the tolls are part of the agreement reached to receive European funds and that, therefore, they should be implemented as of next year.
“The Spanish Recovery Plan as proposed by Spain and approved by the European Commission includes the commitment to adopt a law on sustainable mobility and transport financing by December 2023,” explained the Commission’s economic spokesperson, Veerle Nuyts, at a press conference on Thursday.
“We understand that the Spanish plan refers to a payment mechanism for the use of roads that will begin in 2024 in line with the principle that the polluter pays,” the spokeswoman added.
Government sources explained this week that Spain is proposing to the European Commission to replace the payment for use with another system with which to pay for the maintenance of roads. In the framework of the technical negotiations of the addendum, which has to be closed before the end of the year, the Department of Economic Affairs of the Presidency and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have argued that the situation under which the Recovery Plan was agreed is not the same as the current one. More than two years have passed and, in between, a war has broken out on European soil, they defend.
The general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, affirmed last week that Spain could begin the implementation of new tolls in Spain in 2024, although later, before the commotion of his words, he regretted the “confusion” and argued that he did not have information or responsibilities in the Government’s plans on the matter. The Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, “categorically” denied that a pay-per-use plan is going to be imposed in Spain on the main roads.
Navarro’s statements took place after, in the electoral debate between the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the PP candidate for the presidency, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the latter told him that the Executive had sent the EU a letter with the implementation of tolls.
