Valencian businessmen urge Sánchez not to use the Port as a “bargaining currency” in their agreements

2023-10-02 22:38:09

The acting president of Government, Pedro Sanchez, warm up engines on the eve of officially starting, the period of negotiations to set a new investiture session in Congress as head of the central Executive for a next legislature. The possible pact with its future partners, beyond approving an amnesty law and accepting or not accepting a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, could also have important consequences for the future of the Port of Valencia, which does not go unnoticed by businessmen.

In that sense, “in the face of alleged pressure from the Republican Left of Catalonia and Junts per Cat” so that the Grao site is not expanded, from the autonomous CEV employer association that presides Salvador Navarrowanted to record “the full support for the project to construct the northern container terminal, in an expansion that has already been carried out.”

Key infrastructure

Navarro commented yesterday that a key infrastructure such as the aforementioned cargo loading and unloading terminal “cannot be used, directly or indirectly, as a bargaining chip in any type of political negotiation.” As will be remembered, the Sumar coalition (which includes commitment y We can), led by Yolanda Díaz, also stops the approval of the council of ministers for the authorization of the intended investment of the APV.

In Navarro’s opinion, “two Catalan formations cannot condition the decision on a key infrastructure for the future of the Valencian Community from an economic, business and social point of view. Hence we ask the acting president of the Government – Navarro points out – that if there is pressure from the Republican Left of Catalonia and Together by Cat to stop the terminal, I ignored them.

“Vision of State”

The CEV hopes that Sánchez’s talks in order to form a government “do not lead to the paralysis of the northern terminal of the Port of Valencia. The competition between autonomies is understandable but must be responsible, just as the actions of the Government must be, which we ask that acts with a vision of the State as a whole and does not accept pressures that could lead to an interterritorial conflict,” he adds.

In the midst of competition between Mediterranean ports to attract more merchandise traffic, something that is natural and understandable, the parliamentary group of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in Congress asked a long battery of questions to the Government of Spain on the situation of the Port of Valencia, its logistics activities zone (ZAL), the northern land access and even the space used by the Royal Navy of Valencia. ERC then urged Pedro Sánchez’s Executive to consider the “precautionary suspension” of the project to expand the Grao site.

Pedro Sánchez, last Friday in Congress. JOSÉ LUIS ROCA

Government authorization

The board of directors of the APV approved four years ago the investment that Valenciaport must make (just over 500 million euros) to adapt the new container terminal, which the multinational TiL-MSC intends to operate and in which it will invest some 1,100 million of euros. And he sent it to State Ports for later submission to the Council of Ministers, which must give its approval as it is a work that exceeds 12 million euros.

Since that moment, Navarro regrets, the project has remained blocked by a part of the Executive, despite the fact that it was the Government itself that endorsed the arguments of the study carried out by the Polytechnic University of Valencia on the northern terminal in a parliamentary response from the year 2021.

The continuous delays in the investment of the Italian-Swiss capital company “could scare away” the aforementioned shipping company, acknowledged the president of the association of managers and businessmen in the logistics sector Propeller Valencia. Alfredo Soler. In an interview published this past weekend in Levante-EMV, from the Ibérica Prensa Group, Soler assured that “Sanchez’s partners want to enhance the Barcelona’s portnot the one in Valencia”.

Camera and carriers

The top leader of the Valencia Chamber of Commerce, José Vicente Morata, considers that “there is no objective reason for the acting Government to delay the authorization of investments in a port that is not only that of Valencia, but also that of Spain and southern Europe.” Morata, at the time a councilor of the APV, adds that the central Executive can “harm the competitiveness of export companies, which have the Valencian port as the main exit door for sales of goods from Spain to the whole world.”

“The only real reason for this paralysis is due to sectarianism and the particular interests of some political groups.” This is how forceful the president of the FVET transport association spoke yesterday, Carlos Pradeswho assured this newspaper that continuing without progress in the new northern terminal means “paralyzing an engine for generating wealth and employment in the Valencian Community, increasing the competitiveness of the economy, attracting new investments and industrial innovation.” .