News
of the routes

On 17 August 2016, the European Commission approved version 2.2 of the INTERREG V-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020).

The main objective of the Programme is to continue and reinforce the economic and social integration of the cross-border area through cooperation. Cooperation projects for eligible French, Spanish and Andorran partners across the territory are promoted and co-financed in order to achieve this goal. The INTERREG V-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020) is funded by the European Union, with a total budget of 178 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER without technical assistance).

On 4 November 2016, the POCTEFA Monitoring Committee approved the official text of the second call to tender of the INTERREG V-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2014-2020).

On 31 May 2017, THE GIRONA GREENWAYS CONSORTIUM, along with its 4 partners,FIGUERES CITY COUNCIL, GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE PYRÉNÉES-ORIENTALES, L’ALT EMPORDÀ COUNTY COUNCIL and PERPIGNAN MÉDITERRANÉE  MÉTROPOLE, presented the project “EFA 156/16 BICITRANSCAT” Development of new cyclable routes and cross-border multimodal links to promote sustainable mobility to the second call for POCTEFA projects.

The Programming Committee of POCTEFA 2014-2020, held on 8 November 2017 in Biarritz, approved the resolution of the second tender with 62 cross-border cooperation projects and 71 million euros of the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). One of the projects approved was EFA 156/16 BICITRANSCAT.

The main objective of the BICITRANSCAT project is to develop a new coastal axis of cross-border sustainable mobility close to the EuroVelo 8 European cycling route, “The Mediterranean Route (Cadiz-Athens)”. This project thus meets the high expectations of cycle tourists, tourists with fixed abode, and the local population, already highlighted in the previous Link.

BICITRANSCAT aims to link the main tourist destinations of Girona and the Western Pyrenees via a cyclable route interconnected with public transport in different ways, thus promoting sustainable mobility and offering a coastal route which provides an alternative to the existing roads which are often congested during summer months.

To meet this goal, three large-scale tasks will be carried out:

– Construct a new stretch of the EuroVelo 8 route and improve it through the development of a network of greenways that will function as feeders to it, particularly from the TGV and AVE stations in Perpignan and Figueres, thereby improving the provision of existing sustainable cross-border transport.

– Develop new sustainable mobility services and facilitate multimodal cross-border cooperation (modes of acces, information, development of applications).

– Study user behaviour along these cross-border sustainable transport routes and measure the economic impact of the improvements on transport provision across the territory.

To achieve this, the “EFA 156/16 BICITRANSCAT” project has a budget of 4,689,269.25 euros, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra (POCTEFA 2014-2020) programme (65%), the Regional Council of Girona (25%), as associated member of the project, and the self-funding of 10% by the Girona Greenways Consortium.