Brussels, 09/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) posed the question, at a conference organised jointly with the Danish Presidency of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday 8 May, of whether the funds for investing in European railways are really there. Denmark has decided to pour massive investment into its railways, pledging to install the ERTMS system throughout its network by 2016 - thereby reducing the total cost by 45%. Railways, however, are costly and always need many subsidies, without necessarily achieving the goals set. “It's a political problem and a problem of efficiency”, commented MEP Richard Seeber (EPP, Austria). However, with the review of the trans-European transport network and the Connecting Europe Facility, transport is once again on Europe's growth agenda, said Jean-Eric Paquet, Director, European Mobility Network, at DG MOVE. “Rail is a sector in which the EU is the world leader. Investing in infrastructure and innovation is investing in the ability to export and innovate”, he went on. For that reason, Ann Jensen (ALDE, Denmark), a member of the Parliament's budgets committee, was concerned that cuts in the EU budget might not affect the CAP or structural funds but hit transport. (MD/transl.rt)