Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport of the Government of Spain, has announced that he will hold a meeting with the French Executive in which he will request “reciprocity” to allow Spanish companies to enter its railway network “without hindrance.” Furthermore, he will demand “responsibility” with the business model of French companies such as Ouigo, which he sees as “unsustainable” and about which he has criticized on several occasions.
In statements to the media, reported by Efe, before participating in Brussels in a meeting of the Twenty-Seven Transport Ministers, Puente announced that he will meet this Thursday with the French Executive to “analyze issues that have to do with rail transit.” “. and cross-border infrastructures” between both countries. Spain proposed this three-way meeting, also with the European Commission, but “France has not agreed” and it will finally be a bilateral meeting, explained the Spanish Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
Renfe planes in France
Puente assured that “there will not be any issue that will be left off the agenda”, which will also include the controversy regarding the price of tickets for the high-speed operator Ouigo, owned by the French public company SNCF. “I am going to ask, on the one hand, for reciprocity. Spain, at the same time that the entry of a French company into our market is taking place, has the right to enter France and do so without obstacles, with facilities,” he defended, in the middle of Renfe’s intention to expand its horizons in the French country.
Along the same lines, it will demand “responsibilities” with respect to the company’s “business model,” which “cannot be an unsustainable business model in the long term because in the end the money will come out of taxes or it will come out of the pockets of the citizens.” users”. “It is evident that a business model that is not sustainable, in the end, has to be paid for by citizens, and that is what we have to value,” she added.
“Deeply” unfair practices
Puente himself announced last Monday in an interview on Onda Cero that the Government is considering going to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to denounce the high-speed railway operator Ouigo for “deeply” unfair practices.
The minister then denounced that “what was only going to be a healthy competition has turned into a war from the first minute” because of Ouigo, which sells “well below” the cost and “has dragged down the other two competitors ( Iryo and Avlo) to “very bad” results.
