On Thursday 13 April, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport unanimously adopted their position on the revision of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) rules. They also unanimously supported the European Parliament’s mandate for inter-institutional negotiations. The Council of the EU adopted its position on 5 December (see EUROPE 13077/1).
The text adopted by the European Parliament committee firstly insists on the need for harmonised technical and operational standards, and on intermodality. In this sense, rail and inland waterway - or short-distance sea shipping - should be favoured. Road transport, on the other hand, would be intended for the initial and final stages of journeys, where necessary.
To this end, the text, put forward by Barbara Thaler (EPP, Austrian) and Dominique Riquet (Renew Europe, French), provides for the rail network on the central TEN-T to be fully electrified by 2030. This would allow passenger trains and freight trains to travel at a speed of at least 160 km/h and 100 km/h respectively. The text also aims to ensure that the EU’s internal borders can be crossed by train in less than 15 minutes by 2030. “This is ambitious, but necessary if we are to succeed in shifting traffic from road to rail”, commented Thaler.
In addition, MEPs would like to make EU funding for transport projects under the TEN-T conditional on Member States adopting urban mobility plans that integrate road safety, decongestion of cities and alternative modes of transport, such as cycling, by the end of 2025.
Furthermore, the report sets deadlines. The projects relating to the core TEN-T should be completed by 2030, and the deadline for the overall TEN-T is 2050. By this date, existing bottlenecks should be removed, missing links completed and the autonomy of the 11 European network coordinators increased. An intermediate deadline would be 2040. In the event of significant delays by Member States, MEPs support the Commission’s ability to launch an infringement procedure and reduce - or end - funding.
There are also provisions to increase projects with Ukraine and Moldova and reduce those with Russia and Belarus in the context of Russia’s war of invasion in Ukraine. For its part, the Commission should, one year after the entry into force of the text, conduct a study on large-scale movements at short notice, in order to facilitate military mobility planning.
The text will be put to the vote by MEPs at the next plenary session, which starts on 17 April. “We have a strong position in the Parliament and this shows that we have a shared vision of what the networks should represent. This will allow us to arrive in a strong position for the trilogues, which are likely to be complicated, given the position of the EU Council”, concluded Mr Riquet. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)