Speech by President of the Government at event to open Unquera-La Franca sub-section of Unquera-Pendules section of A-8 Motorway

Messrs. Presidents of the Regional Governments of Asturias and Cantabria, Madam Minister, government delegate, Madam Councillor for Public Works, Members of the Lower House, Members of the Upper House, dear friends, representatives from the media,

As the President of the Regional Government of the Principality of Asturias said in his speech, today is an important day for Asturias, but as he also pointed out, this is an important day for Cantabria, for Galicia and for the Basque Country.

With the completion of the Asturian section of the A-8, the whole of the Cantabrian coast is now connected by motorway. Hence, today we take an important step in improving the network and cohesion of four autonomous regions and, in short, covering the entire northern coastline of the peninsula.

Moreover, I believe we can say that this is an infrastructure that needed to be carried out, an infrastructure that responds to real needs and an infrastructure that is not excessive since it contributes to the development of our country, generates new jobs and will undoubtedly serve to offer greater well-being, prosperity and quality of life.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I believe that we have good reason to be proud of what we have achieved through so much hard work and effort, both human and economic. Spain is currently the country with the largest high-capacity road network in Europe. The Spanish highway network exceeds 165,000 kilometres, of which some 15,000 are high-capacity roads, in other words, toll motorways, free motorways and other highways. There are more than 71,000 kilometres managed by regional governments and another 68,000 kilometres by provincial councils. In turn, local councils are in charge of close on 490,000 kilometres.

One thing I would like to mention is that, in addition to making travel easier, infrastructures are essential for improving the competitiveness of our companies and, hence, wealth, production and job creation.

According to the recently published Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, Spain is among the 10 leading countries in the world in terms of infrastructure. To a great extent, this is the result of investments made over the course of many years by many governments in our country.

I am going to outline, because this is what I am aware of as the current President of the Government, the total investment in highways made during the course of this legislature; a legislature, as you are aware, that has been difficult and complex, coinciding with a major economic crisis in which all public authorities and a great many people have been subject to all manner of difficulties.

Even so, in these first three years, we have invested almost 8 billion euros, with a forecast investment of a little more than 2 billion euros in 2015. Our commitment will thus continue and of this total investment sum of over 2 billion euros forecast for investment in 2015, 1.16 billion will be allocated to new infrastructures and 935 million euros to maintaining existing ones, which is also one of the major obligations of our public authorities.

I would like to point out that next year - 2015 - we are due to open the following important works : firstly, this A-8 motorway which, following the opening of this section in Asturias, only remain pending the two sections in Cantabria, which will be completed in 2015; secondly, the Ruta de la Plata motorway between Benavente and Zamora; thirdly, the A-7 in Granada, which has been pending for a long time now but will be completed in 2015; and, finally, the A-15 in Soria, which will finally connect the capital and province of Soria with the State Motorway Network. This is the commitment for 2015, apart from the continuation of other works - which I won't bore you with - and urban works in cities, ring roads and access roads to ports.

In relation to Asturias, the President of the Regional Government mentioned in his speech, that you have all just listened to, certain works that are urgent for this region. These are included in the General State Budget. The budget of the Fomento Group for 2015 in the region amounts to 538.9 million euros and this region is in fifth place in the table in terms of both GDP and number of inhabitants, with 504.4 euros per capita.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I will finish now, but I wanted to make some comments before doing so. We are here to celebrate an event that is very important for communications in Asturias and the whole Cantabrian coast. This is a major step forward in completing one of the main lines of communication in our country.

With the completion of the Unquera-La Franca section, the north of Spain, the whole coast, is now connected by a high performance motorway that is key for its development and for its network. I thus believe that this is a day for congratulations, firstly, to all those people who have worked all this time, and they have been many; and, secondly, to the citizens and all the companies in our country.

We are talking about a high-capacity motorway spanning almost 490 kilometres which, together with the adjacent AP-8 highway, connects Spain with Europe via the French border through the town of Irún. You can now travel on a high-capacity highway along the coast from Paris to Faro, in the south of Portugal. We believe that this start-up will help foster trade flows with Europe through better connections with France, something which will undoubtedly be very important in the trade balances of the autonomous regions crossed by this highway.

This clearly key infrastructure helps foster the economic and demographic development of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country; but also of the rest of Spain. This is a clearly Spanish infrastructure work, a key piece in improving mobility and the competitiveness of these four regions.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I will now draw to a close. The President of the Regional Government of Asturias said in his speech that major economic crises are not overcome alone. That has never happened, that is not happening now and it will never happen.

The Spanish people are making a major effort; they have been doing so for a long time. I believe that we are starting to see some good, positive things filter through; but Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and Galicia will all do better if the rest of Spain is doing better and Spain will do better if the rest of Europe is doing better.

The great national project of our time is Europe. Europe is now our life, it forms a part of our day-to-day. Our currency is European as are our exchange rate and monetary policies. Decisions that affect the fisherman of this land, or of mine - Galicia - are taken there. Many issues are raised there but there are still many things that need to be done to improve Europe and make it greater.

I am absolutely convinced that the Spanish people, and they have shown this on many occasions throughout history, are hard workers, constant and have known how to overcome many situations, and that we will also find a way to definitively overcome this period, which has undoubtedly been one of great difficulties.

These infrastructure works, and we sometimes don't realise this, are not simply done to simplify people's lives, which is undoubtedly a key objective for any society that wishes to improve and which seeks to be a good society, but also have a great importance from an economic point of view. This helps reduce costs and expenses, it helps to become more competitive, to export more and, hence, all this helps to produce more and create more jobs.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I said at the start, I appreciate your presence here at this event and I will close by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you very much.