The Council of the EU adopted, on Monday 5 December during a meeting of the ‘Transport’ Council, its position (‘general approach’) for future negotiations with the European Parliament on the revision of the Trans-European transport network (TEN-T) (see EUROPE 13048/17). This text should, in the long term, ensure the EU’s sustainable connectivity and remove bottlenecks and other missing links.
“Developing a good transport network across Europe is crucial. Not only for our citizens to move around fast and reliably, but also for our businesses to further develop and fully use the potential of internal market”, commented the Czech Minister of Transport, Martin Kupka.
The EU Council will approach future negotiations with a view to setting deadlines for the completion of the TEN-T: the core network should be completed by 2030, the newly added extended core network by 2040 and the comprehensive network by 2050.
While rail is an important part of the TEN-T review, the text provides for minimum speeds that can be achieved by trains on certain parts of the TEN-T. For example, passenger trains should be able to run at least 160 km/h on 75% of the sections connecting urban nodes - or an urban node and the border of another Member State. For freight trains, the speed would be set at 100 km/h on at least 90% of these sections.
In addition, transhipment and the ability of trains to carry trucks are also addressed in the text. The text sets minimum thresholds for the length of trains that freight terminals should be able to accommodate.
One part of the text is devoted to rail infrastructure. In a drive to harmonise EU rules and against the background of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, the text provides, among other things, for the establishment of standard rail track gauge as a norm for the TEN-T and towards Ukraine and Moldova.
A section of the text is also dedicated - since the adoption in July by the Commission of a decision making several amendments to its proposal for the revision of the TEN-T - to the European Transport Corridors between, on the one hand, the EU and, on the other hand, Moldova and Ukraine (see EUROPE 13002/4).
“We had interesting discussions to transform some of the current support measures into structural measures, for better connectivity with Ukraine and Moldova”, Mr Kupka said.
On the Parliament’s side, the adoption of its position by the EU Council was welcomed by the rapporteur, Barbara Thaler (EPP, Austrian).
“I welcome the EU Council’s general approach and look forward to working together for Europe’s infrastructure”, she commented, stressing that her group would insist in future negotiations that border crossings by train take no more than 15 minutes, on intermodality or that the Commission’s monitoring of whether Member States are meeting the targets set. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)