The future Government will not finally be obliged to implement a toll system on State-dependent roads in exchange for continuing to receive European recovery funds in a timely manner. Neither in 2024, as planned, nor in the following years.
This summer, the Executive asked the European Commission to renegotiate, within the framework of the Addendum to the Recovery Plan, one of the most complex points and has achieved its objective. According to the documents to which this newspaper has had access, Brussels has accepted the proposal to exclude from among the commitments the implementation of payment for using highways and motorways.
The agreement between Spain and Brussels contemplates the replacement of tolls with other solutions to try to reduce polluting emissions from road transport. Specifically, Spanish and community negotiators have agreed to include in the future Sustainable Mobility law, a regulation that was stranded in the Cortes Generales due to the early call of general elections and that will be processed again in this legislature, a series of measures to promote the transport of goods by rail.
The agreed changes are already black on white. In this way, both parties agree to delete from milestone 3 the obligation to “establish a financing system for the conservation and maintenance of public infrastructure and that internalizes environmental costs.”
In exchange, the future Sustainable Mobility law will contemplate three new developments: firstly, “the obligation to implement a rail highway development program in those corridors where it is viable and there is a business interest in its development.” That is, Spain is committed to promoting different rail corridors to try to channel greater freight transport.
Secondly, the next Government will have to make the commitment to approve a “bonus on railway charges for freight traffic for a minimum period of five years”. Finally, Spain will develop “a support program for rail freight transport”, with measures to encourage modal change from the road and with a plan to modernize the sector.
The agreement reached with the Commission also includes modifying the “C1R2 reform” of the Recovery Plan. This eliminates the obligation to create “a payment mechanism for the use of State roads, which will begin to operate from 2024, in accordance with the polluter pays principle.” This mention remains a dead letter and in its place the three innovations described above are included to promote rail transport.
The European Commission has already informed Spain that it accepts these changes; modifications that will be official when all negotiation of the Addendum is closed.
With the closure of the renegotiation of tolls, an issue piloted by the Department of Economic Affairs of the Presidency of the Government and the Ministry of Transport, Spain is shelving one of the commitments that had generated the most tension. The general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, ignited the controversy in the middle of the election campaign for the general elections on July 23 by stating in an interview that “what I can tell you is that next year, due to imposition from Brussels, we will have than putting tolls, he demands it from us.” The Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, had to deny her party colleague and Navarro himself later apologized for the “confusion” generated.
Brussels spoke out those days through its economic spokesperson, Veerle Nuyts, who limited himself to stating that “the Spanish Recovery Plan, as proposed by Spain and approved by the European Commission, includes the commitment to adopt a mobility law sustainable and transportation financing for December 2023.” “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 ‘polluter pays’ principle,” she added.
After intense negotiations throughout the summer, Spain has achieved its goal of maintaining the current model, in which road maintenance is paid for by budgets, in exchange for exploring decarbonization through trains.
