Spain Pours Millions into Stalled Gibraltar Tunnel Project, Connecting Europe and Africa

Morocco and Spain signed a joint declaration of intent in 1979 under Hassan II and Juan Carlos I to build a 42 km underwater tunnel in the strait. The project is intended to connect Europe to Africa. But since then, the construction of the tunnel has not started. Despite the creation of the two public study companies, SNED in Morocco and SECEGSA in Spain in the 1980s, the tunnel has remained at the project stage, reports Público.

For 43 years, not a single stone has been laid. Yet, environmental and technical feasibility studies of the project have been carried out. In the 1990s, the two Moroccan and Spanish study companies organized meetings in Tangier, Madrid, Marrakech and Seville to take stock of the studies carried out on both sides of the project. Between 1981 and 2014, 10 marine surveys, including four in depth, confirmed the orographic and hydraulic complexity of such a project in an unstable maritime area, marked by the confluence of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.

In a report on the period 1997-2001, the Spanish Court of Auditors noted a "discontinuity" in the execution of the studies and a "stagnation" of SECEGSA’s main activity, noting a "significant surplus" of cash. In 2017, the company had ten employees for an annual payroll of 384,000 euros, nearly half of which, or 181,500 euros, was allocated to the two management positions. State subsidies over the past seven years amount to 1.3 million euros, the institution denounced, noting "weak" progress.

The tunnel is "about to materialize," assures José Luis Goberna, the president of SECEGSA, convinced that technological advances in the tunnel drilling industry will allow to "accelerate" this project "of great complexity" whose realization will promote "sustainable development, prosperity and stability throughout the region." The project is viable, according to Alejandro Castillo, civil engineer and professor at the University of Granada. It should require an investment of 20 billion euros, representing 2 to 5% of Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP). Its realization could last 10 to 15 years.