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The Common Cross-Border Development Strategy (ECDT) was the culminating point of the Iberian meeting and is presented as a set of measures and investments to “make life easier for people living on the border,” as the Portuguese Prime Minister pointed out. , António Costa.
Together with the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, the Portuguese CEO highlighted some of the expected benefits for the inhabitants of the border, such as the situation of cross-border workers, the health card that allows treatment on both sides of the border or cooperation between public services, as in the case of the 112 network, which will respond in an emergency to those who can best do so.
The Recovery and Resilience Plan of each country must incorporate the priorities of this strategy that will also seek funding in Brussels, with the Portuguese Prime Minister stressing that, this time, the two countries will not separate to negotiate with Brussels, but together.
The Strategy covers 1,551 Portuguese parishes, an area that corresponds to 62% of the Portuguese territory and benefits more than 1,600,000 Portuguese.
On the Spanish side, it includes 1,231 municipalities and 3.3 million inhabitants of the municipalities of the border provinces of Badajoz, Cáceres, Huelva, Ourense, Pontevedra, Salamanca and Zamora, which corresponds to 17% of the surface of Spain.
In total, in Portugal and Spain, this Strategy will directly serve more than five million people, along one of the largest borders in Europe.
The objective of the ECDT is, according to the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, “to put the interior of the country at the center of the Iberian market, create a new economic centrality and reduce the abandonment of these territories.”
The purpose is to improve services to the population, creating conditions for the development of innovative common projects that value the resources of the border territories and make them more attractive to live, work and invest.
Completing the network of road connections between the two countries is one of the purposes of the joint strategy, which includes the construction of the IP2 connection between Bragança and Puebla de Sanabria, Moraleja-Monfortinho-Castelo Branco, linking the EX-A1 with the A23 through IC-31, Vilar Formoso-Fuentes de Oñoro, connection of the A25 to the A62 (Castilla highway), the highway between Zamora and the A4 / E82, in Quintanilha (Bragança), and the connection of the IC5 Miranda do Douro to Zamora via Sayago.
The construction of the new bridge between Sanlúcar del Guadiana and Alcoutim and the international bridge over the Sever river between Cedillo and Nisa is also planned.
Rail transport is also contemplated with the modernization of the Beira Alta line from Fuentes de Oñoro / Salamanca, the Elvas-Badajoz Logistics Platform, the Covilhã / Guarda section, the Viana do Castelo / Valença section, and the connection of the Portuguese Atlantic axis- Spanish. , which includes Lisbon, Porto, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela and La Coruña.
The two governments also propose to accelerate the construction of the Lisbon-Sines-Poceirão-Évora-Badajoz-Cáceres-Madrid high-performance line.
Among the planned measures is also the creation of the figure of the cross-border worker to facilitate the movement of these citizens without limitations such as those seen when the borders were imposed at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.
The two countries also want greater coordination in basic services, such as Health, Education, Social Services and Civil Protection, to improve the exchange of new or existing services, in order to better serve the citizens of both countries.
ECDT provides, for example, 112 cross-border, which will allow the user to access the nearest emergency services, be they Portuguese or Spanish.
The strategy also aims to attract “new companies and investments to these territories, through innovative joint projects between the two countries”, in the areas of agro-industry, agroforestry and renewable energy.
