Spain-Morocco Tunnel Project Gains Momentum After Years of Delay

In a recent article published in the Awraq magazine, edited by Casa Arab, the general director of the Spanish Society of Studies for fixed communications across the Strait of Gibraltar (Secegsa), General José Luis Goberna, expressed optimism about the realization of the project, after the "slowdown" observed during the period from 2010 to 2021, due to the successive crises between Spain and Morocco. "The project continues to reach certain milestones and is getting closer and closer to a successful conclusion," he told El Diario.

But financing remains a "determining factor" for the realization of the project, "especially in the next phases of construction and operation," stressed the official, calling for a public-private partnership. In addition to the financial problem, the "geostrategic nature" of the project in the global context should not be lost sight of, warns Goberna, recalling the central geographical position of this tunnel in the strait, an area where American and British military bases are installed, transit for the Russian fleet and trade and investment.

Secegsa, like its Moroccan counterpart, SNED, only carries out studies and never any work. On the sidelines of the Hispano-Moroccan committee on the project, which was held in April in Madrid after 14 years of lethargy, the Spanish Minister of Transport announced that the studies already carried out and in progress aim to analyze the feasibility for telecommunications and energy transport. Raquel Sanchez specified months later, during a visit to Rabat, that the two countries have agreed to accelerate the studies of this project "strategic for Spain and Morocco but also for Europe and Africa".

Goberna is convinced that this project "will facilitate collaboration and fraternity between neighboring peoples, who will be mutually beneficial in all respects and who will strengthen the importance that the two nations deserve within the international community". Following the EU’s decision to abandon Russian gas, as a sanction for the aggression against Ukraine, the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline had aroused keen interest, particularly from the United Kingdom, and its connection to the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline had been mentioned.