EU grants €2.3 million in funding for Morocco Spain undersea tunnel

The Spanish and Moroccan governments, with the support of EU funding, have reinvigorated plans for an undersea tunnel that could potentially connect Europe’s high-speed rail network to North Africa.

A design study for the Gibraltar strait fixed link, a railway tunnel aiming to link the two countries, has been granted €2.3 million (£2 million) in funding from Spain, as confirmed in an entry in Spain’s state gazette on June 16, 2023.

The funding is provided through the EU’s Recovery, Transformation & Resilience Plan and will be allocated to the Spanish Society of Studies for a Fixed Link through the Strait of Gibraltar (SECEGSA), the group responsible for exploring various possibilities for the project.

The initiative, known as the “Europe-Africa Gibraltar strait fixed link,” has gained significant momentum since its inception in 2009. In April of this year, both governments expressed their commitment to restarting the project. The proposed tunnel would span the nine-mile continental divide.

Despite the concept being first proposed in the 1970s and formalized in the 1980s, little progress has been made on the project. The joint committee established to advance the tunnel has not convened since 2009, and the entities responsible for exploring the idea have lacked the necessary funding.

The inauguration of Morocco’s first high-speed rail line in 2018 has renewed hopes for a fast train connection between Europe and Africa. Spain already possesses an extensive high-speed rail network that extends to its southern coast. Tangier in Morocco now serves as the starting point for a high-speed rail line leading to Rabat and Casablanca.

Highlighting the significance of the project, Raquel Sanchez, Spain’s transport minister, emphasized its importance during a meeting in April, stating, “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.”

Sanchez further added, “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.”