The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched, on Friday 21 October, a study to identify ways to better connect the Ukrainian and Moldovan railway networks to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
“This way we are setting the scene for longer-term solutions, supporting Ukraine in its post-war trade and the reconstruction of the country, aiming, in particular, to remove the interoperability gap at borders”, commented the EU Commissioner for transport, Adina Vălean.
In detail, the study should, in the long term, make it possible to resolve the question of rail gauge, which is different in a large part of the EU from that in Eastern European countries. This problem, the Commission argues, could be solved by extending the EU’s railway gauge on the borders of Poland and Romania into Ukraine and Moldova.
This study, to be carried out by May 2023, is part of the Solidarity Lanes Action Plan and is also linked to the Commission’s July 2022 proposal on the extension of TEN-T to Ukraine and Moldova (see EUROPE 13002/4). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)