The councillor for Territory, Mobility and Infrastructures, Fernando Rubio, explained that the island institution must issue a resolution, which they are already working on, and they will make every effort to ensure that the economic impact of the ruling is minimal for the public coffers.

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Contentious Administrative Court

The Administrative Court number 3 in Palma has given the Consell de Mallorca two months to execute the ruling on the bailout of the Sóller tunnel. Last September the Supreme Court ruled that the rescue of the tunnel concession, executed by the Consell de Mallorca in 2017, was null and void in a judgement that is now final and which argues that there was no public interest in rescuing the concession. However, the high court did not set the amount of compensation and referred the execution of the sentence to the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJB), who entrusted it to the Administrative Court number 3 of Palma. This court has now given the Consell de Mallorca two months to issue a resolution setting the economic terms for executing the sentence won by the concessionary company.

The councillor for Territory, Mobility and Infrastructures, Fernando Rubio, explained that ‘the Consell has already paid 16.4 million euros and, with this, the photo of the left-wing parties raising the tunnel barrier became the most expensive image in the history of Mallorca’. Rubio added: ‘This resolution, which the judges have given two months to issue, will be the one that will dictate the amount that the Consell de Mallorca considers has to be paid. We will make every effort to ensure that the economic impact of the ruling is minimal for the pockets of Mallorcans’.

Rubio also recalled that Consell has already paid 16.4 million, but the company was asking for more than 30 million. ‘The Consell de Mallorca paid in 2017 a total of 16.4 million euros for the rescue and if they had waited five years, the cost would have been zero for the public coffers, since the administrative concession ends in June 2022.’

The Consell de Mallorca’s legal and economic services are already working on the resolution to keep the cost as low as possible, which must be communicated to the courts by July at the latest.