The trans-European transport network: State of play in 2020
22-12-2020
For a number of years now, the EU has been developing a transport network across its territory to link its regions and countries, and thus also markets and people. This large-scale project – the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) – should be efficient and sustainable, and contribute to economic activity. It covers the development of all transport modes, yet seeks to shift a significant part of road transport to less polluting modes, in particular rail and inland waterways. In 2013, the EU Member ...
For a number of years now, the EU has been developing a transport network across its territory to link its regions and countries, and thus also markets and people. This large-scale project – the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) – should be efficient and sustainable, and contribute to economic activity. It covers the development of all transport modes, yet seeks to shift a significant part of road transport to less polluting modes, in particular rail and inland waterways. In 2013, the EU Member States agreed to have the 'core' network ready by 2030, and set aside unprecedented amounts of funding to achieve this goal. Seven years later, the European Commission is taking stock of what has been achieved, what remains to be done and what will not be achieved within the 2030 horizon. It has already proposed changes to the EU financial support for TEN-T for the 2021-2027 period and reviews of the relevant guidelines, and plans to propose an adapted set of rules to the European Parliament and the Council in 2021. These should better support transport decarbonisation and digitalisation, as well as boost infrastructure resilience to climate change. This briefing looks at the latest updates to the work plans prepared by the European Coordinators, the experts each responsible for advancing one branch of the network through having the best grassroots information available to them. Their views are complemented with the more general findings from reports published by the European Court of Auditors. Some thorny issues of past and future financing of the TEN-T projects are mentioned and, finally, an outline of expected developments is given, both related to the United Kingdom's exit from the EU and the EU's next multiannual budget, for 2021-2027.
Europäisches Parlament
Europäisches Parlament