The PSOE wants to approve the Sustainable Mobility Law before the end of the first quarter of 2023

Deputies from PSOE, PP, Podemos, Cs, Vox, ERC and PDeCAT discuss the challenges of bus transport in a conference of ANETRA

Oct. 8 () –

The PSOE hopes that the new Sustainable Mobility Law will reach Parliament next November since it wants to do everything possible so that it can be approved in the first quarter of 2023, before the electoral period that will open the regional elections begins and May municipal elections and, later, the general ones.

This was reported by the PSOE spokesman in the Congress Transport Commission, César Ramos, during a debate on the challenges of bus transport organized in Madrid this Thursday by the National Association of Bus Transport Employers (ANETRA), as reported to Europa Press parliamentary sources attending this act.

In the round table, under the title ‘The proposals of the political parties to increase bus transport: the challenge of a pending reform’, the spokespersons of more parties also participated: Andrés Lorite (PP), Laura López (Podemos), Onofre Miralles (Vox), Inés Granollers (ERC), Juan Ignacio López-Bas (Cs) and Ferran Bel (PDeCAT).

LIBERALIZATION AND THE FUTURE LAW, TOPICS OF DEBATE

The preliminary draft of the Sustainable Mobility Law, the measures that must be taken to promote the use of the bus, the reform that the sector needs or the alternatives to the current concession model such as the liberalization carried out in other European markets were some of the topics of discussion during the day.

The aspects that impact the day-to-day of the more than 900 small and medium-sized companies that make up ANETRA were also protagonists of the table, in which businessmen from all over Spain expressed to the deputies the challenges they face in their businesses, according to a statement of the organization.

During the debate, the socialist spokesman assured that they are working with the deadline for the Sustainable Mobility Bill to be approved and sent to Parliament in November, so that it can be definitively approved before the end of the first quarter of 2023 or, in the first semester at the latest.

Some spokespersons were not so optimistic about these deadlines, especially taking into account the electoral period that is opening, and they agreed that it is better to take a little longer and agree on a long-lasting law that sets mobility for the next decade than to bet by a “decaffeinated” law, according to the consulted sources present at the act.

In the colloquium, several of the attendees agreed that steps must be taken to change the current model, which is based on a concessional system, and they hoped to reach agreements during the parliamentary process of the Sustainable Mobility Law, according to sources present in the day.

ANETRA claims that the passenger transport model be inspired by the European regulations of 2009 and that it be similar to the one in force in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and the Czech Republic, according to its president, Luis Ángel Pedrero, in his appearance in Congress last June.

“The current Spanish regulatory system maintains a base inspired by the concession system that the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) itself already questioned in its 2017 report,” Pedrero stated then at the parliamentary headquarters, where he also stressed that of the 77 transport concession contracts of the MITMA de Transportes, 44 concessions are “extinct” and “expired”.