13/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Situation settles on canal enlargement work. On 12 February, the Panama Canal authority announced it had reached a preliminary agreement with the European consortium in charge of widening the canal - Spain's Sacyr Group, Italy's Impregilo, and Belgium's Jan de Nul - as regards the costs of the work. This has enabled work to be resumed, which had been suspended since last week. That Panama authority nevertheless said that it did not reject the alternative of using another constructor for the rest of the work. “I am optimistic and I really hope that this preliminary agreement will be transformed into a definitive understanding. This positive news coming from Panama shows that when Europe speaks with a single voice it is more credible and obtains results”, said European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani, who is playing the role of intermediary in the negotiations between the government of Panama and the European consortium. (EH/transl.fl)