2023-12-13 09:35:04
A small step in the European Union (EU), but it represents a great victory for the regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Euskadi. Yesterday the European Council began work on the creation of the Atlantic Arc Macroregion, which seeks to channel European investments to these territories. This issue was removed from the Council’s agenda on Monday, but after the news was published in ELCORREO, the Basque Government put pressure on it to be included, with messages between Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu and the Spanish President Pedro Sánchez.
The Secretary of State for the EU, Pascual Navarro, indicated after the Council that “this is a fundamental and necessary step” for its creation. For his part, the vice president of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic assured that this initiative and the territories that make it up are “very important” for the bloc. The process will take some time. Navarro explained that, once the project has been presented to the Member States, a mandate must be requested from the Community Executive for the creation of the macro-region, which must be validated again by the European Council.
Energy connections
Until now, the project had only been discussed at a regional level and a couple of proposals had been made to the European Commission and capitals. However, the step taken yesterday represents the beginning of work at the community level and a boost to the initiative promoted, among others, by the Basque Government with the aim of advancing rail and energy connections in the macro-region, which would group together Portugal. , Spain, France and Ireland.
Its presentation before the Council, however, was in jeopardy until Monday afternoon, when the Spanish Presidency decided to remove this debate from the agenda of the ministerial meeting. Diplomatic sources assured this newspaper that the issue “was not mature enough” to be discussed in the Council and that “more work was needed so that all the parties involved are aligned to move this issue forward.”
It was then that Lakua set out to pressure the Spanish delegation – with messages between Urkullu and Sánchez – who finally reinstated the discussion on the agenda at the last moment. The Spanish Presidency thus fulfills the ambition of the Basque Government, which “had hopes” that “the necessary steps” would be taken for its formation during this European semester. The Basque Executive has been asking Madrid for “a shared effort” for some time to vindicate this initiative.
#Urkullu #puts #pressure #Sanchez #Europe #promote #Atlantic #Arc #Macroregion