Plans for a subsea tunnel that might ultimately connect Europe’s high-speed rail network to North Africa have been revived by the governments of Spain and Morocco with the assistance of EU financing.

According to a June 16, 2023 article in Spain’s state gazette, Spain has allocated €2.3 million (£2 million) on a design study for the Gibraltar strait fixed link, a railroad tunnel intended to connect the two nations.

The Spanish Society of Studies for a Fixed Link via the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), the organization charged with investigating alternative options for the project, will get the financing, which is granted through the EU’s Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan.

The project, also known as the “Europe-Africa Gibraltar strait fixed link,” has gained a lot of momentum since its start in 2009. The project will be restarted in April of this year, according to both governments. The proposed tunnel would span the nine-mile continental divide.

The idea was first proposed in the 1970s and codified in the 1980s, but little progress has been made since then. The organizations responsible with conducting the investigation lacked the necessary funding, and the joint committee established to advance the tunnel hasn’t met since 2009.

In 2018, Morocco’s first high-speed rail line opened, reviving expectations for a quick train link between Europe and Africa. Spain already has a sizable high-speed rail infrastructure that reaches the country’s southern coast. The beginning of a high-speed rail line connecting Tangier, Morocco, with Rabat and Casablanca has recently been established.

At a meeting in April, Spain’s transport minister Raquel Sanchez emphasized the project’s significance, saying, “After fourteen years, from Tangier in October 2009, we are going to give impetus to the studies of a project of maximum geostrategic importance for our countries and for relations between Europe and Africa.”

In addition, Sanchez said, “We are beginning a new stage in the revival of the fixed link project across the Strait of Gibraltar, which we launched in 1981, hand in hand.”

Read Also: A bridge will finally link Morocco to Spain, not a tunnel

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Madrid – Spain and Morocco have started a new stage in the revival of the project of fixed link of the Strait of Gibraltar, said the Spanish Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sanchez.

“We are entering a new stage in the revival of the fixed link project through the Strait of Gibraltar, which we began in 1981 with our two companies, Secegsa and the Moroccan National Society of Studies of the Strait of Gibraltar (SNED),” said Raquel Sanchez, who co-chaired the 43rd meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Committee of fixed link project of the Strait of Gibraltar on Monday with Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka.

The Spanish minister was quoted in a statement released on Tuesday by his department as saying, “The fact that we are advancing the studies of a project of the greatest geostrategic importance for our countries and for relations between Europe and Africa after fourteen years, since October 2009 in Tangier, has an important political significance.”

Following a high-level meeting between Spain and Morocco in Rabat on February 1 and 2, during which “both countries reaffirmed their agreement to promote the studies of the fixed link project,” according to the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the joint committee meetings were called.

In this way, the committee meeting approved of the collaborative work done since 2009 by the Moroccan counterpart of SNED and the Spanish company Secegsa, which is in charge of the studies.

The same source emphasized that the joint committee’s recommendations state that “both parties encourage the visibility of the project and agreed to address the development of a comprehensive strategy and work plan for the next three years, which could include, among other things, the analysis of the feasibility of the construction of a reconnaissance gallery to identify the geomechanical characteristics.”

According to the ministry, the meeting also takes place at a time when the Secegsa has been reactivated after a period without a large budgetary commitment and studies have been ordered to determine whether an intercontinental fixed link for energy and communications is feasible.

In this regard, the same source reminded that the Plan for Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience (PRTR), adopted by the Spanish government, includes 2.3 million euros in European funds to update the project-related studies.

Read Also: Rabat’s runaway calves fuel questions about Brazilian imported cattle

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According to the Spanish publication La Razon, Spain and Morocco are moving forward with plans to build the 40-kilometer tunnel that will connect the two nations beneath the Strait of Gibraltar.

Raquel Sanchez, Spain’s minister of transport, was quoted in the article as saying that the two nations would speed up the project’s studies, which have been in the works since 1979.

The project, according to Sanchez, is “strategic” for all of Europe and Africa, not just for Spain and Morocco.

During a meeting between Sanchez and his Moroccan counterpart Nizar Baraka, the project is said to have been revived. The two met while attending a recent high-level meeting between the two nations, and they revived the project’s studies.

Plans for the tunnel were first laid out in 1979 after the joint declaration between Spain and Morocco was signed.

The project kept getting put on hold due to various diplomatic issues between the two countries, despite receiving ample funding from organizations like the World Bank, European Investment Bank, and African Development Fund.

However, the project appears to have been revived in light of the recently improved diplomatic relations.

Spain supported Morocco’s Autonomy Plan in March 2022 in response to Morocco’s stance on the Sahara dispute, and the two nations have since worked to strengthen their partnership.

Last week, high-ranking representatives from both countries, including the heads of government, gathered in Rabat. During the meeting, 19 bilateral cooperation agreements were signed.

If the tunnel project is approved, both parties stand to gain from more efficient use of the storage and transportation infrastructures, as well as lower costs for shipments between the two nations and for travel.

According to La Razon, Morocco’s Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch stated that the project offers chances to “build the future” and that he hopes it “will bring about a real revolution at several levels” between the two nations.

As a gateway for European nations and investors into the rest of Africa, Morocco, it can also strengthen ties between Europe and Africa.

Although it is unclear what kind of impact it might have on the project’s cost and anticipated start date, the depth of the Strait of Gibraltar and its wind and wave patterns are expected to make construction of the tunnel challenging.

Construction on the project was scheduled to start in 2030 as of October 2022.

Nevertheless, studies and experts maintain that the tunnel is still “feasible,” and with stronger ties between the two nations and the potential for increased trade, it could be one of the biggest projects in their future.

La Razon further stated that due to their increased cooperation with Morocco, the UK, which governs Gibraltar, wants a tunnel to connect the city to that country.

Through the project, Morocco hopes to increase the number of British visitors and investors as well as find a new outlet for marketing its goods, particularly agricultural ones, to the British market.

Read Also: Spanish FM: high-level meeting in Morocco was excellent,relations will only improve

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Morocco and Pakistan conducted a naval exercise in the Strait of Gibraltar on Tuesday, August 10.

According to reliable sources, the Royal Moroccan Navy and the Pakistan Navy performed a passing exercise in the Strait of Gibraltar on the occasion of the passage of the frigatePNS ZULFIQAR.

On the Moroccan side, it participated with the Royal Navy Ship“Sultan Moulay Ismail F614,” while on the Pakistani side, it participated with its Navy Ship “ZULFIQAR.”

Over the last decade, military cooperation  between the Kingdom of Royal Kingdom and Pakistan has progressed significantly.

Thus, with exchanges of visits and fraternity programs for the benefit of officers in both countries’ higher military training institutions, as well as the organization and participation in a number of weapons-related exercises.

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