The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has asked the European Commission to dedicate more financing to the preparation of infrastructure to face the meteorological disasters that increasingly affect the continent. It is one of the lessons that DANA has left in Valencia and it is time to make the request in Brussels given that next year the next European budget for the period 2028-2035 will begin to be negotiated.
“We have just gone through an extreme weather phenomenon, such as DANA, and, together with others that have occurred in Europe, it leads us to the need to think about infrastructures with the capacity to resist with resilience to this type of weather events” Puente told journalists upon arrival for a meeting with his EU counterparts.
“We need financing, we must begin to include the construction of resilient infrastructure in the budgets,” continued the minister, who this Wednesday met with the new Transport Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, and explained the situation to him.
Puente has given as an example the viaducts that were destroyed during the DANA in Valencia. “They are being rebuilt with the capacity to withstand a DANA like the one we have experienced and higher, and this is going to increase the costs of the infrastructure and is something that must be taken into account by the Commission,” he added.
Puente questions Aldama’s accusations about Ábalos
Asked about Víctor Aldama’s accusations about the alleged awarding of contracts by his ministry during the times of José Luis Ábalos in exchange for bribes, Puente has acknowledged that he does not believe them to be true: “What I have been able to see is a BOE, an annex of investments, underlined. The test has little value.” Even so, he has assured that the contracts will be reviewed.
The minister has acknowledged that it is “very difficult” to rig this type of adjudication in a process in which he recalled that “neither the minister nor any politician intervenes.” “These procedures involve many people,” he said: “I am surprised that it is said that the minister has the capacity to award a work,” he stated.
“I would have to see it to believe it, and even then, it would be difficult for me,” Puente responded to the question of whether he trusts that Ábalos did nothing to compromise the public coffers, as Aldama is denouncing.
#Government #asks #funding #prepare #infrastructure #disasters #DANA
