Barcelona is doubling the pressure and is now asking to reduce the number of cruise stops agreed with the port


The Barcelona City Council claimed that the planned seventh cruise terminal at the Adossat Mall in the Port of Barcelona was not built, and that a license was not renewed Terminal C to From 2024, during the first session of the Cruise Sustainability Council promoted by the Port of Barcelona.

This was explained by the vice-mayor of urban planning in Barcelona, ​​Janet Sanz, in statements to reporters, on Wednesday, at the conclusion of the founding session of the council, in which there are representatives of departments and cruise sector.

Sanz asked for a “clear concession not to build Terminal VII”, whose tender was suspended after a legal conflict Among the companies that applied for public tender, as shown in the data compiled by Ep.

The board also proposed that Terminal C be left without a cruise activity and allocated to another port-related activity from 2024 (the Terminal C concession is being awarded to a group that operates three terminals owned by harborand this in particular is permitted annually).

Head of construction in Catalan capital He said he sees these two proposals as “a very clear opportunity,” because he warned that with the construction of Terminal Six already underway, the city could reach four million cruise passengers.

For Sanz, the first session of Consell served to check the “incremental” reality and that, in addition, 70% of cruise passengers arriving in Barcelona are in transit, which is why he described them as “Cruise fast food. And she specified that in 2022 there were 28% of cruise passengers arriving from the primary port and 72% transiting, and she asked why the port represents more than half of the visitors to the primary port, and she replied that they are counted at the entrance and at the exit, which leads to an increase in representation in the data .

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Of the proposal to make the cruise business sustainable, he said: “I don’t see where the sustainability is In this document and in these proposals, because there is no definition of how something sustainable today can be made unsustainable in the city.” The head of urban planning, who accused the government of inaction, added: “It looks like an endless growth schedule, because there is no measure of control and containment.”

“What Barcelona deserves is the General judgment«From this activity, the request to address the number of cruise passengers, not just the number of boats.

In fact, it is considered that the 2018 agreement reduced the number of stations to avoid access to 13 previews Then he argued that it was an agreement for a specific moment when it was necessary to respond to the situation. For her, the agreements were necessary but not sufficient, and she emphasized that “this was not a complete stop point, the 2018 agreement was a starting point.”

In response to this situation, the Port of Barcelona warned that reducing the arrival of cruise ships to the city means «significant compensation«, as the shipping companies that won the awards got the rights to invest in the port enclave.

On the Barcelona City Council’s aspiration to reduce cruises, sources from the foundation that presides over Luis Salvado They pointed out that the companies “employ the schedule a year and a half or two years ago” and that there are no easy and quick procedures. Port sources add to ABC that they are adhering to the 2018 agreement.

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For the port enclave, the Sustainability Council “gives continuity” to the agreement signed in 2018 between the port and the city council which has been reduced to seven Cruise terminalswhich will remain in effect until 2027, when the station at the Barcelona Sur pier will be closed.

The port indicated that this agreement includes an investment of 265 million euros from public and private investments, and that it includes “improvement elementsFor cruise activity and facilitating further operations of the main port.

Port sources themselves stated that they are conditioned on a concession-based “playing field” and recalled that part of the new facilities are paid for by shipping companies when they win public tenders. This is the case for MSC, which will invest Between 70 and 80 million to build your station. «If a shipping company that has made an investment is told that it cannot develop its rights, this means, in fact, compensation. And it seems to me that we are not here, ”they argued.

Port Authority, City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, General, Government Delegation, Captain, Air Routes Commission, Barcelona Regional Council, and Economic and social factorsand plans to meet up “two or three times” a year.

During the meeting, the Port of Barcelona revealed its commitment to improving Transparency From the cruise sector of the city and because it is established and not for stopovers, which means the presence of ships that do not exceed a few hours in the city.

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