Almeida postpones remunicipalizing the management of the M-30 until 2025
The remunicipalization of the management of the M-30 will have to wait. The Madrid City Council, led by José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has not included in the 2024 budget project any item or plan to change the model of Calle 30, the company in charge of the maintenance and conservation of the ring road, currently mixed capital. Sources from the Works and Equipment Area, on whom the entity depends, detail to El Confidencial that the measure is still being studied, but will not be applied in the short term.. “It will not take place before 2025,” they explain, once the municipal accounts for the next year have been presented..
The initiative has been going on for several years.. First it was the Government team of Manuela Carmena, driven by the alleged irregularities in the agreement with the private partner, and later the Coalition Council between the PP and Ciudadanos. The Cibeles Plenary Session approved a motion last legislature, supported by all the groups with representation (PP, Más Madrid, Ciudadanos, PSOE and Vox), to begin the procedures for the Administration to assume its ownership one hundred percent.. Almost two years after the mandate of the Municipal Chamber, however, the proposal has not materialized.
The Madrid City Council, which has been studying this possibility for more than two years, considers that it is not yet the time. The current contract, signed in the time of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, ends in 2040, but allows changes to be made in 2025. That year, therefore, is presented as key for the future of the entity. Calle 30 now operates with a mixed model, where the public Administration controls 80% and the remaining 20% is the responsibility of Emesa, made up of ACS and Ferrovial..
The rest of the parties were not too happy with remunicipalization at this time either.. Más Madrid, the first opposition party and promoter of the measure in the 2015-2019 mandate, brought a question to the branch commission regarding the reasons for assuming management before 2025.. The doubts pointed to an alleged benefit for the private partner, something that has always accompanied the company. The PSOE, in fact, also showed its reluctance after the Plenary mandate, when the City Council launched a working group with the rest of the political forces to address this issue.. The formation now led by Reyes Maroto, as this newspaper reported at the time, denounced that in the assumptions raised “Emesa always won”. The project was paralyzed.
The municipal government, however, in no case rules out this project.. Sources from the Works and Equipment Area detail that the measure is still being studied, mainly focused on assessing the cost and payment of possible compensation to Emesa.. “The possible change in the management model is being studied, as indicated by the delegate in the October commission,” they warn, after pointing out that there is no longer a working group as such..
Controversial project
Remunicipalization is a controversial issue that has raised important controversies in the Madrid City Council. Especially during the mandate of Manuela Carmena, who had among the axes of her government to assume ownership of outsourced services or with public-private collaboration.. He did it with the funeral home or the company that manages the city cable car, but he did not finish the plan for Calle 30.
Now Madrid (Más Madrid since 2019) also promoted a commission of investigation into the alleged irregularities in the agreement signed around the M-30, after a report from the Chamber of Accounts that pointed to the lack of transparency in the process and some irregularities, such as the responsibilities of each party on the electricity bill, systematically paid by the City Council despite being an obligation of Emesa. The commission, which was approved with the votes of Ahora Madrid, PSOE and Ciudadanos, concluded that the contract represented a loss of 1.2 billion euros for the public coffers..