The Spanish Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, will hold a meeting with the French Government in which he will ask for “reciprocity” to allow Spanish companies to enter its railway network “without hindrance”, and for “responsibility” with the firm business model. galas like Ouigo, who sees it as “unsustainable”.
In statements to the media before participating in a meeting of the Twenty-seven Transport Ministers in Brussels, Puente announced that he will meet this Thursday with the French Executive to “analyze issues that have to do with rail transit and cross-border infrastructure.” “between both countries, reports Efe.
Spain proposed this three-way meeting, also with the European Commission, but “France has not agreed” and it will finally be a bilateral meeting, explained the Spanish Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
Puente assured that “there will not be any issue that will be left off the agenda”, which will also include the controversy regarding the price of tickets for the high-speed operator Ouigo, owned by the French public company SNCF.
“I am going to ask, on the one hand, for reciprocity. At the same time that the entry of a French company into our market is taking place, Spain has the right to enter France and do so without obstacles, with facilities,” he defended. In recent weeks, it has also become known that some European companies that were planning to extend their night railway lines to Spain have found themselves blocked by French railway officials.
Along the same lines, it will demand “responsibilities” with respect to the company’s “business model,” which “cannot be an unsustainable business model in the long term because in the end the money will come out of taxes or it will come out of the pockets of the citizens.” users”. In recent weeks, Minister Puente has raised the tone against Ouigo by describing his commercial strategy in Spain as “dumping.”
“It is evident that a business model that is not sustainable in the end has to be paid for by citizens, and that is what we have to value,” he added.
Puente himself announced last Monday in an interview on Onda Cero that the Government is considering going to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to denounce the high-speed railway operator Ouigo for “deeply” unfair practices.
