Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Keep knowledgeable with free updates
Merely signal as much as the Conflict in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.
Spain blocked the Hungarian takeover of a Madrid-based trainmaker on the grounds that Viktor Orbán’s Russia-friendly authorities shouldn’t purchase know-how that could possibly be helpful to Ukraine, stated folks conversant in the matter.
A senior Spanish authorities official stated Madrid vetoed the €619mn bid for Talgo partially as a result of the corporate might help Ukraine’s reconstruction by serving to it strengthen its rail hyperlinks with the EU.
“One among Ukraine’s greatest pursuits is the rail connection,” the official instructed the Monetary Instances, stressing that Talgo might assist Ukraine overcome one huge obstacle: the actual fact its rail tracks are a unique width.
Spain has categorised the paperwork explaining its resolution — which it made on “public safety and order” grounds — and declined to touch upon whether or not its considerations are linked to Orbán and his relations with Russia, which have been the closest of any western chief since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has criticised Orbán because the “pro-Putin” chief of the “worldwide far proper” and stated the Hungarian prime minister “needs to carry Ukraine to its knees”.
Ganz-Mávag, the consortium that launched the Talgo bid in March, is backed by an funding arm of the Hungarian state and trainmaker Magyar-Vagon, which Spain has asserted is “finally managed” by Hungarian oil firm MOL.
The Spanish official stated Talgo had superior engineering — often known as automated gauge change know-how — that might allow trains to maneuver seamlessly between Ukrainian prepare tracks and narrower rails in neighbouring European nations.
“That time of collaboration with Ukraine is among the most essential components of the method of reconstructing the nation and integrating it into Europe,” the official stated.
Ukraine’s prepare tracks are 1,520mm large in step with Soviet norms, however the usual for European rails is 1,435mm, a measurement that originated within the UK.
Variable gauge know-how was developed in Spain as a result of the nation, unusually, makes use of a number of observe widths: the commonest is a 1,668mm Iberian gauge, however there’s a 1,000mm slender gauge within the north whereas Spain’s high-speed trains run on normal European tracks.
In line with Talgo, which produces passenger trains, its variable gauge system “allows a prepare to adapt its wheel gauge whereas working at roughly 15km/h and with out having to cease”.
Due to Ukraine’s wider tracks, most passengers on trains to and from Warsaw must endure waits of a number of hours whereas the prepare axles are adjusted manually. Such delays additionally have an effect on wagons carrying Ukrainian exports of grain and different items, whose weight exacerbates the issue of incompatible gauges.
Talgo pioneered the gauge change know-how and continues to be thought-about a pacesetter within the subject, although most of its key patents have expired and different trainmakers now have related engineering.
Ganz-Mávag has already stated “there aren’t any well-founded causes” for Spain’s veto and vowed to launch authorized motion towards the federal government.
In feedback to the FT, a spokesperson for the consortium disputed the concept that its curiosity in Talgo was pushed by the variable gauge system and harassed that the know-how was “not unique” to Talgo.
“Our curiosity in Talgo has all the time centered on growing the manufacturing capability of this main firm in supplying high-speed passenger trains. Gauge change know-how is solely not an element to be considered and anybody educated of the prepare sector would know this to be an excuse to cover behind a political resolution.”
A lawyer conversant in Talgo stated the gauge change know-how “didn’t make sense” as a motive for Spain to veto the bid. “There’s both one thing they don’t seem to be telling us, or they simply don’t need to promote to a authorities they’re criticising day-after-day.”
A Hungarian authorities spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
György Bacsa, chief working officer of oil group MOL’s Hungarian operations and chair of the Ganz-Mávag Europe board, stated MOL exercised no management over the prepare firm.
Further reporting by Carmen Muela in Madrid
