The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court has dismissed the petition from San Roque City Council to halt the construction works for the electrical link between the Peninsula and Ceuta. The decision is based on the project being in a very advanced stage of construction, with its main facilities already built.
The judicial ruling, dated July 14, responds to the request for precautionary measures filed by the San Roque council as part of its contentious-administrative appeal against the project's administrative authorizations. The City Council argued that the continuation of the works could make any favorable ruling irreversible.
While the Supreme Court acknowledges that dismantling an underwater cable and substations would be a "complex" and "hardly reversible" undertaking, it concludes that this circumstance no longer justifies the suspension. The Chamber notes that Red Eléctrica has provided documentation for the issuance of the submarine cable's operating permit and its commissioning, as well as the construction of new substations and the expansion of an existing one in Puente Mayorga.
Therefore, the court considers that "it is not possible to suspend the execution of works already practically completed," as the "periculum in mora" (risk that judicial delay frustrates the purpose of a favorable judgment) is absent. The ruling exclusively rejects the provisional suspension of works, without ruling on the legality of the contested authorizations.
San Roque City Council maintains its opposition to the project, which began years ago when Red Eléctrica moved the substation's location from Los Portichuelos (La Línea) to Puente Mayorga. The council cites the "high concentration of industrial and energy facilities" in Puente Mayorga and the proximity of the new infrastructure to homes and facilities, such as a school.
The institutional opposition, supported by neighborhood mobilizations and plenary motions, has been accompanied by allegations and legal actions announced by the mayor, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix. Red Eléctrica, for its part, defends that the chosen location meets technical and environmental criteria, and that the proposed solution minimizes impact with buried cabling and a compact substation integrated into an existing building.
The project, which obtained administrative authorization and a declaration of public utility in November 2024, includes a double submarine circuit of approximately 58 kilometers under the Strait of Gibraltar. It connects to the peninsular grid via the Algeciras substation in Puente Mayorga and reaches the new Virgen de África substation in Ceuta. The total cost is estimated at around 220 million euros.
