Tallinn, 17/10/3013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 17 October in Tallinn, the European Commission announced that the nine corridors constituting the core Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) would be completed by 2030. The European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas said that there were crucial projects in all the different corridors but did highlight a number of priorities such as the Warsaw-Helsinki “Rail Baltica” connection as being “very symbolic” and also mentioned the promotion of internal river ways such as the Seine-North canal. The Brenner Tunnel, the Lyon-Turin rail link and the Fehmarnbelt connection between Germany and Denmark are also very important to the Commission.
Each corridor has been selected by the European Commission, in close collaboration with the member states, in an effort to cover at least three modes of transport, three member states and two cross-border projects.
The Baltic-Adriatic corridor focuses on road and rail by way of Poland (Upper Silesia), Vienna and Bratislava, the Alps and northern Italy.
The North Baltic Sea corridor focuses on connections between Baltic and North Sea ports by sea, road and rail. It covers Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The Mittelland-Kanal and “Rail Baltica” between Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and the North East of Poland are in this corridor.
The Mediterranean corridor begins in the Iberian peninsular and continues up to the Ukrainian-Hungarian border. It covers the French and Spanish Mediterranean coasts, the Italian Alps, the Adriatic Coast in Slovenia and Croatia, towards Hungary by road and rail. The Lyon-Turin rail link is part of this corridor.
The Eastern Mediterranean corridor includes ports and motorways linking the North, Baltic, Black and Mediterranean seas. Germany, the Czech Republic, the Pannonia region, Southeast Europe, Greece and Cyprus are in this corridor.
The Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor covers the Baltic Sea from Finland to Sweden, southern Germany, the Italian Alps, Austria and Malta. The Brenner Tunnel is included in this.
The Rhine-Alps corridor links the North Sea ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to the Mediterranean port of Genoa, via Switzerland and Germany. The Rhine is used in this as a navigable river way.
The Atlantic corridor links, by road and navigable river (the Seine), the Iberian peninsular, the Atlantic ports of Le Havre and Rouen, Paris and Mannheim/Strasbourg.
The North Mediterranean Sea corridor is multimodal and focuses on maritime and inland ports to link up Ireland, United Kingdom, southern France, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The North Sea, the Meuse, the Rhine basins, the Scheldt, the Seine, the Saône and the Rhône are in this corridor.
The Rhine-Danube corridor links up the regions of Strasbourg and Frankfurt to Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest up to the Black Sea. (MD/transl.fl)