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Pere Navarro, head of Spain's Directorate-General for Traffic made the statement during a television interview, but he has since qualified his statementMotor Channel
Madrid
Friday, 14 July 2023, 17:39
The head of Spain's Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT), Pere Navarro, said during an interview on Thursday that in 2024 there will be tolls on Spanish motorways. "Next year, as imposed by Brussels, we will have to set up tolls, Brussels is demanding that we do so," he said in an interview on TV3.
Two years ago ABC newspaper reported that the government would give itself until 2024 to implement the pay-per-use model on Spanish motorways and dual carriageways. This could be seen in 2021 in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan submitted to Brussels.
Madrid highlighted then that this system of road tolls would move "towards the internalisation of the external costs of transport under the principle of charging the user 'user pays' and also the 'polluter pays' principle". The government added that the intention with this system is to pay for the maintenance of the state road network.
After Navarro's statements and the commotion that ensued, the DGT director himself has qualified his words and regretted "the confusion" that has been caused. According to DGT sources quoted by EFE, Pere Navarro has reminded his department that it has neither the competence nor the direct information to make a statement on tolls.
Subsequently, the government has also "categorically" denied that it is thinking of imposing these tolls for using motorways. In statements to the press, Spain's PSOE Transport Minister reproached the Partido Popular for commissioning this study "to implement tolls from 2021". She said this was "reinforced by many PP leaders who, in private, acknowledge that they are in favour of a system like this, and in public and now in the campaign, they are taking advantage of the situation to say the opposite".
On Monday, in the face-to-face general election debate between Sánchez and Feijóo, the opposition leader also reproached the prime minister for this measure, although Sánchez did not enter into the debate and responded by defending the liberalisations that have been carried out. Navarro said that this issue should be "agreed between the two major parties" to avoid the issue “entering into the electoral debate". "In the end, we all lose out," he said.
Navarro added that Brussels "demands" the imposition of tolls. "Brussels tells us that the money they are sending us is not for road maintenance and upkeep, it is for other things", he said, adding, that "we must impose tolls as a requirement if we want to receive more money".
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