Cross-Pyrenees transport infrastructures

11.4.2005

ORAL QUESTION H-0286/05
for Question Time at the part-session in May 2005
pursuant to Rule 109 of the Rules of Procedure
by Luisa Rudi Ubeda
to the Commission

For the last two months the French side of the Somport pass has been closed to lorries of over 3.5 tonnes. The French authorities have said that the route will not be reopened to heavy goods vehicles until at least the summer. Meanwhile, alternative routes from Aragon have been restricted by snow. In recent years, enormous efforts have been made on the Spanish side to increase the capacity of the route Zaragoza-Huesca-Jaca-Somport-Pau (a trans-European transport network project), but these have not been reciprocated on the French side. The other routes between Aragon and the Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees regions (rail link via the Vignemale tunnel; reopening of the Canfranc-Oloron crossborder rail line; improvement of the Bielsa tunnel) are still at the drawing-board stage.

 

In view of these circumstances, which, as has happened repeatedly in recent years, have led to the interruption of goods traffic between Aragon and France, will the Commission open urgent infringement proceedings against France for maintaining restrictions on the transport of goods and people?

 

Does the Commission not believe that the relevant authorities in both Member States should be obliged to accelerate - with Community funding - the implementation of some of the above-mentioned projects, in order to eliminate the present bottleneck in the central Pyrenees?

 

 

Tabled: 11.04.2005

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