Alstom challenges TMB's tender, which vetoes it due to its ties to Israel.

BarcelonaControversy surrounds the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB) tender to add 39 more trains to the metro network by 2029. The French company Alstom has challenged the tender, arguing that it "includes requirements that violate the principles established in the public service contract law." The reason? The tender bans its participation because it is on the list of companies operating in Israeli settlements compiled by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

In a statement, the French company—which has a plant in Santa Perpetua de Mogoda and has historically built all the trains for the Barcelona metro—declares that it has "no activity within the occupied Palestinian territories or that can be related to them," and explains that it has repeatedly informed the OHCHR of this information. For this reason, they explain, they formally requested to be removed from the list in 2023. A request they reiterated in 2024 and 2025.

In the same text, Alstom emphasizes that the UN itself "has acknowledged its inability to frequently update" the list. The company also criticizes the fact that the competition does not allow applicant companies to provide "clarifications or context." Therefore, how has progress been made? The Economist and ARA has confirmed, they have decided to contest the tender to manufacture 39 new trains that should be incorporated into the metro network in 2029 and which were the big announcement that the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, made at the end of June on the occasion of the metro's centenary.

A plenary agreement

In fact, this is one of the first tenders to incorporate this clause, complying with what was agreed upon by the Barcelona City Council plenary session in May. With the votes of the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Barcelona en Comú (Barcelona en Comú), and Esquerra (Ecuadorian Left), the Catalan capital's council approved a text that, once again, severed the twinning relationship with Tel Aviv "until respect for international law and international humanitarian law is restored and respect for the basic rights of the Palestinian people is guaranteed."

That text included the establishment of "essential" clauses in all municipal public contracts to ensure that no economic operator or municipal company carries out "financial operations, investments, purchases, contracts, and other activities" with Israel or with companies that could favor Netanyahu's arms policy.

The document also guaranteed that there would be no municipal relations with companies identified by the UN as "illegally operating in Israeli settlements, with consequences for the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem." It also demanded that Fira de Barcelona not host "Israeli pavilions" or those of arms companies, and that the port not allow ships carrying weapons destined for the Tel Aviv government to dock.