Foreseeing EU membership by several Western Balkan states within the next decade, MEPs called for “gaps to be closed” when it comes to transport infrastructure with the Western Balkans. Their views were set out in an own-initiative report by Andrey Novakov (EPP, Bulgaria) and adopted on Thursday 3 May (475 votes in favour, 153 against with 22 abstentions).
MEPs thus underline the need to take forward the use of macro-regional strategies and territorial cooperation. In particular, they call for rates of national co-funding for maritime ports and shipping to be brought into line with those for railway projects and cross-border road projects.
More generally, MEPs stress emphasis should be placed on the less developed regions, and mountainous, isolated or very outlying regions. In addition, they invite the Commission to develop a list of criteria for admissibility to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF), taking into account multimodal connectivity, specific local and regional features, road and rail safety, and the environmental impact.
They call for the Connecting Europe Facility, the Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund to remain the primary source of investment in transport infrastructure during the next multiannual financial framework. In this regard, they consider that subsidies must remain the first source of investment and not be supplanted by financial instruments for public transport infrastructure.
The European Commission has presented its communication for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) in which it provides for a reduction – substantial or otherwise depending on calculations (see related article) - of Cohesion Policy (see EUROPE 12013). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)