"Kortingen op budget voor Transeuropese netwerken zijn zorgwekkend" (en)

donderdag 23 februari 2006, 11:43

Former Commissioner Loyola De Palacio i expressed deep concern at the Council's plans to cut the budget for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) in the period 2007-2013 when she addressed Parliament's Transport Committee on Wednesday. "The internal market is the core business of the EU, but what is an internal market without a good transport system?" she asked.

The ex-Commissioner's appearance before the committee came just hours after the latest trialogue on the EU's budget plans for 2007-2013, following which members of Parliament's Budgets Committee highlighted the threat posed to important Community projects by the Council's proposed budget cuts.

Mrs De Palacio warned MEPs that there would be considerable mobility problems in the near future if the financing of the TENs was not settled properly now. The former Commissioner is now one of the six coordinators for the TEN-T, in her case for the rail route Lyon-Turin-Budapest-Ukrainian border.

Transport Committee chair Paolo Costa (ALDE, IT) stressed that the efficient transport of goods and passengers was crucial to the economy.  It was, he said, the framework within which the EU functioned, both as a market and as an economic and political entity. For the period 2007-2013 the Commission had proposed €20.35 billion for the TENs, but the Council had proposed reducing this figure to an estimated €6 billion in its December 2005 agreement.

The Transport Committee believes that, if this Council position were accepted, the very idea of the network would be under attack and the whole programme would be downgraded to a random collection of public works. To place the €6 billion figure for the TEN-T in the overall context of the 2007-2013 period, it was pointed out that the total cost of 18 priority projects currently under way was already €159 billion.  If the EU funding of the TEN-T projects was reduced, the share paid by Member States would have to increase to meet the commitment to complete these projects.

Referentie :

2006/02/21 08:30:00

Committee on Transport and Tourism

chair : Paolo Costa (IT) - ALDE

REF.: 20060223IPR05634