In the end, it took the negotiators of the European Parliament and the EU Council no more than three trilogues to reach provisional agreement on the European Commission’s legislative proposal to facilitate the completion of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).
On Monday 8 June, by videoconference, the co-legislators were able to agree and compromises were reached on the main points of disagreement between the two institutions (see EUROPE 12397/9), namely: the nature of the text, its scope, the duration of the permitting procedure and the designation of an authority to act as a relay to the project promoter.
Directive. With regard to the nature of the text, the choice was made for a Directive with a transposition period of 24 months. The Commission, in its initial proposal, and Parliament had opted for a Regulation. The solution chosen will give the States greater flexibility, which is important to the EU27.
Scope of application. It was also agreed that this Directive would apply to projects forming part of pre-identified sections of the TEN-T core network and to other projects on the axes of the core network with a total cost in excess of 300 million euros.
As provided for in the agreement reached between the Member States alone, projects exclusively related to telematics applications, new technologies and innovation will be excluded from the scope.
One authority or more. Member States should furthermore be able to designate one or more authorities, in accordance with their national administrative structures and legal frameworks and depending on the type of project.
The condition put forward by the EU Council that only one authority may be designated for a given authorisation decision has been maintained.
Four years max. Finally, it is the EU Council’s position that has prevailed with regard to the duration of the licensing procedure: a maximum period of 4 years will be set for the entire licensing process.
It may be extended a maximum of two times, in duly justified cases. Parliament, for its part, intended to reduce the entire procedure to less than 3 years.
A few points will still have to be addressed by the Permanent Representatives (Coreper) on Wednesday before the content of the provisional agreement is unveiled.
Dominique Riquet (Renew Europe, France), the rapporteur on this dossier for Parliament, described the provisional agreement reached as a “significant step to speed up by two or three times the realisation of important infrastructure projects all across Europe, in particular the cross-border ones”.
Before entering into force, the agreement will still have to be approved by Parliament and the EU Council. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)