Photo: U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Tarr
Parliament and Council negotiators agree on updated guidelines for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) to support the implementation of major projects by 2030.
The guidelines agreed on Monday evening outline the EU's plan to build a network of railways, roads, inland waterways and short sea routes linked by ports and terminals across the European Union. Current TEN-T projects range from the Rail Baltica project linking Helsinki and Warsaw to the Brenner Base Tunnel connecting Austria and Italy and the Lisbon-Madrid high-speed rail line.
Dates
The agreement reaffirms the EU's commitment to complete major transport infrastructure projects on the TEN-T core network by the end of 2030 and on the global network by the end of 2050, with a focus on removing bottlenecks and missing transport links. In order to speed up the implementation of the projects, negotiators agreed on a transitional deadline of 2040.
Intermodal transport
MEPs have ensured a greater focus on intermodal transport, which is mainly carried out by rail, inland waterways or coastal shipping. This will be reinforced by electrified railways on the TEN-T core network, which will run at 160 km/h for passenger and 100 km/h for freight by the end of 2030 and cross the EU's internal borders in less than 25 minutes on average. In addition, EU railways will have to move to the European standard gauge (1435 mm) and to a single traffic management system by the end of 2040.
Military mobility
To ensure the smooth movement of troops and equipment, MEPs have convinced EU governments to take military needs (weight or size of military transport) into account when building or upgrading infrastructure that overlaps with the military transport network. Within one year of these new rules coming into force, the Commission will have to carry out a study on large-scale relocations in the short term across the EU to facilitate military mobility planning.
Partnerships with third countries
The agreed text also limits transport infrastructure projects with Russia and Belarus and instead strengthens transport links with Ukraine and Moldova. To mitigate the security risk arising from the participation of non-EU companies in major TEN-T projects, member states will inform the European Commission of measures taken to mitigate this risk, the agreement states.
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EP rapporteur Dominque Riquet (Renew, FR) stressed, "This agreement is a major step forward in achieving our objectives. Thanks to the new rules of the trans-European transport network, we are creating the conditions for a shift towards greener modes of transport, while stimulating the mobility of Europeans and the competitiveness of our economy."
Next steps
Once the technical work has been completed, Parliament and the Council must formally approve the agreement for it to enter into force.
Europarl.europa.eu/RoZ
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