On Friday 15 November, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union sent two draft political agreements ('general approach') to the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Committee of Permanent Representatives - Coreper) on the implementation of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the revision of the Directive on road infrastructure charges (1999/62/EC) respectively.
According to information collected by EUROPE, while it is possible that the draft agreement on road user charges (eurovignettes) may still be subject to amendments in Coreper and/or at Ministerial level before being validated, the TEN-T agreement is most likely to be approved by the Member States and lead to a general approach in the EU Council.
For the TEN-T, the draft agreement thus contains no major changes compared to the last draft compromise submitted by Helsinki (see EUROPE 12366/14).
These two draft agreements, as well as the one on rail passengers' rights and obligations (see EUROPE 12370/1), will be examined by the ambassadors in Coreper on 20 November.
If they give the go-ahead, they will then be forwarded to the Member States' Transport Ministers with the goal of reaching a general approach at the next Transport Council on 2 December. EUROPE will continue to follow this story.
For its part, the European Parliament adopted its position at first reading on TEN-T and road charges on 13 February 2019 (see EUROPE 12193/9) and 25 October 2018 (see EUROPE 12125/2) respectively. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)