The Lehendakari meets Alain Rousset

The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, met this morning with the President of the Regional Council of Nouvelle Aquitaine and current President of the Euroregion, Alain Rousset.

At this meeting, they had the opportunity to take stock of joint projects, which are essential for a cohesion policy that meets the needs of cross-border citizens and the challenges arising from the ecological and energy transitions.

Suburban trains

At the meeting they discussed hypotheses for the development of a new suburban rail link between Bayonne and San Sebastian and underlined their strong will to support this project.

Atlantic Rail Corridor

They also shared their determination to complete the interconnections between Spain and France within the deadlines set by the European Commission. In this sense, they have appealed for progress in the application of the commitments made by the Spanish and French states in relation to the start of the work necessary to complete the Atlantic Rail Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network and a work schedule that commits the French authorities.

The two presidents will carry out joint initiatives to mobilise socio-economic and political actors, as well as the governments of the two states and the European institutions.

Multilingualism and language policy

They have agreed to strengthen and promote knowledge of the languages of both territories. In particular, they are committed to strengthening public policies in favour of the Basque language on both sides of the border and in favour of French language learning in the Basque Country.

In this respect, the Interreg POCTEFA programme will specifically earmark several million euros to finance this priority.

Hydrogen

In this area they underlined the shared will to participate in the development of an Atlantic Cross-Border Hydrogen Corridor. They bilaterally underlined their desire to shape this sector of the future —one of the pillars of the energy transition— with their economic partners and expressed their wish to extend this initiative to the territory of the Euroregion.

Opening of the border

They reiterated their request to reopen the border crossing points closed since January 2021.