After being approved by the European Parliament’s Transport Committee last December (see EUROPE 12613/15), the draft report on the future revision of the guidelines for the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), presented by Jens Gieseke (EPP, Germany), received strong support during the plenary debate on Tuesday 19 January.
Speakers took turns at the podium and by videoconference to welcome the draft report and to make recommendations essentially similar to those made by Mr Gieseke.
The MEPs thus insisted on the need to work on the deployment of a TEN-T that: - helps to reduce emissions from the transport sector; - is more crisis-proof; - guarantees citizens’ mobility at affordable prices.
Several political groups also expect increases in the digitalisation of the network, facilitation of border crossings, and promotion of interoperability.
In his speech, Mr Gieseke stressed the need to integrate rural, peripheral and outermost areas into the network by 2050 and argued for the connection with the United Kingdom to continue, provided that the country continues to participate in funding.
Some speakers advocated more support for rail - coordinators Isabel García Muñoz (S&D, Spain) and Jakop Dalunde (Greens/EFA, Sweden), among others.
“If we want to promote trains, it has to be in our investment priorities”, Dalunde said.
Catching up by 2030
Focusing on the issue of delays in the deployment of the TEN-T (see EUROPE 12472/15), the rapporteur also stressed the importance of consolidating the competences of the European coordinators. He called on Member States to fulfil their obligations and on the Commission to “play a more active, stronger role”.
On this point, the Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, who was present during the debate, welcomed the fact that the draft report requires that existing legislation not be “revolutionised”.
“Especially, the design of core network should only undergo small changes in order to not endanger the timely completion of it by 2030”, the text argues.
Mrs Vălean assured that she would make every effort to complete the network in time. She promised to strengthen monitoring tools and stressed that extending the 2030 deadline was “not an option”.
The coordinator of the Renew Europe group and shadow rapporteur on this dossier, Dominique Riquet (France), for his part, considered that this objective now seemed “compromised” and that efforts should be “urgently made in this direction, particularly in the context of the recovery”.
Commission proposal
Finally, more broadly, the Commissioner for Transport assured that her proposal for a revision of the TEN-T guidelines, expected in the third quarter of 2021, would focus on three objectives: - greening the network by deploying an adequate infrastructure for alternative fuels; - digitalisation and innovation, in particular to make the network more resilient to new threats such as cyber-attacks and crises; - interoperability.
“300 billion euros will be needed over the next ten years just to complete the TEN-T core network and build it as a truly modal system”, she added.
Finally, referring to the improvement of certain quality standards and accessibility to the transport network for passengers with reduced mobility, Mrs Vălean assured that the new legislation would take up “a number of the points” from the European Parliament’s draft report, subject to the results of the impact study.
The European Parliament will vote definitively on the motion for a resolution contained in Mr Gieseke’s report this Wednesday 20 January, after a vote on two single amendments tabled by MEPs from the ID group.
To consult the draft report: https://bit.ly/2XVTUFq (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)