Socialist parties in the Algarve and in Andalusia want to strengthen cross-border cooperation and see as essential a new rail link between Portugal and Spain.
Antonio Eusebio led a Socialist Party delegation from the Algarve to Seville where they met brother Socialists from Andalucia to discuss a greater degree of cooperation between the two parties, as well as to review projects of interest to the two border regions.
The two delegations agreed to intensify their formal political collaboration. Among the objectives discussed was the exchange of information, participation in each others’ events, and an exchange of views and a coordination of efforts for the development of investment projects that promote job creation and economic sustainability of the southern Iberian Peninsula.
The impetus is to boost joint efforts to attack the sources of the high levels of unemployment that currently blight both regions and to promote best practice within regional public authorities and the Algarve and Andalucian councils to combat social exclusion.
Antonio Eusebio, socialist leader in the Algarve, considers this new attitude of cooperation and cross-border dialogue "truly strategic for the proper utilisation of funds under the next Community Support Framework 2014-2020."
The two delegations undertook to make every effort to ensure that projects of interest to both regions were successfully funded, particularly along a new imaginary line, the Faro-Huelva-Seville strategic axis.
Both political groups considered that the much discussed rail link between Portugal and Spain is an excellent idea and have decided to create a permanent working group to ensure that projects and planned investments are pursued rather than just talked about.
