France is about to get its own version of the Suez Canal. Also. this will connect it to three other European countries through Paris.

Work on the new Suez Canal the Seine-Nord Europe Canal (SNEC) started in 2023. Moreover, it was nearly 15 years after it was legally greenlit. This with the government eager to break up a European transport bottleneck.

The massive €5.1billion (£4.3billion) venture had struggled to get off the ground floor. Additionally, from the time it was first approved in 2009 but works finally sputtered into life in July last year.

The new canal has been conceived as a solution to the existing bottleneck at Canal du Nord and Canal de Saint-Quentin, which run parallel to one another in northern France.

Only slightly longer than its existing counterparts, SNEC will, in practice, allow massive freight to pass through a clogged and traffic-heavy area, but its environmental credentials have been disputed by activists.