Baltic-Adriatic Axis

European Parliament Transport and Tourism Committee approves TEN-T core network and backs "Connecting Europe Facility" to invest in Trans-European transport infrastructure

A map and guidelines for developing the Transeuropean Transport Networks (TEN-T) in 2014-2020 were amended by the Transport and Tourism Committee on Tuesday. Mature national infrastructure projects in the core network will have to compete for funding from the new "Connecting Europe facility" (CEF).

TEN-T funding should help primarily to build or upgrade cross-border sections and missing links so as to remove remaining bottlenecks in the core network by 2030, MEPs say. The new instrument should also link remote or insular regions into the EU network and help create modern, multimodal nodes and plate-forms in airports, inland and maritime ports.

Multimodal corridors

After adding a few qualifying infrastructure projects to the core network, the Transport Committee approved the map of ten corridors, initially drafted by the Commission together with member states. Each corridor must be overseen by an EU coordinator, say MEPs, and all private, national, regional or local partners should be involved at an early planning stage to avoid future construction delays.

Primary instrument for EU integration and economic growth

"This is the project of the European transport policy", said rapporteur Georgios Koumoutsakos (EPP, EL) after the vote, "as it will benefit every single European citizen, be it for trade, work, tourism or environmental reasons. This project will enable us to turn a patchwork of national transport networks into an integrated EU network by 2030", he added.

Transport infrastructure projects to complete EU's core network

Three-fifths of future CEF funding is earmarked to develop modern, sustainable, safe and high performance trans-European transport networks. Designed to carry forecast future traffic flows, they aim to improve the EU's overall competitiveness, reduce transport's carbon footprint and boost the single market by optimising the interoperability of various transport modes. Ports, logistics platforms and "motorways of the sea" will form and integral part of the network.

Projects will be selected annually, on criteria that include maturity and EU added value, with a special view to removing bottlenecks and bridging missing links, particularly on cross-border sections.

7th Partner Meeting incl. 5th PMB Meeting and 2nd TCPs Meeting took place in Trieste/IT (April 9th until April 10th, 2013).

Transport: New portal on Trans-European Network with dynamic maps

The European Commission is launching today a public portal allowing citizens and businesses to access up to date information on the advancement of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) through satellite-based dynamic maps, facts, figures and various audio-visual and interactive elements. In practice, it will allow users to see the live development of the TEN-T network in the region of their interest.

Vice-President Kallas, the Commissioner responsible for Transport welcomes the new portal: "The Trans-European Transport networks are the key infrastructure links to ensure our goods can flow and people can travel smoothly through Europe. This new tool allows everyone to see how he can benefit from the connections financed with the help of the EU budget."

Trans-European Transport Network TENTEC - European Commission Content should be a sentence that describes the content of the page