Brussels, 12/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission plans to earmark EUR 750 million over five years to bottlenecks that are restricting the transport of goods by rail, it was announced on Monday by European Commission Vice-President responsible for transport, Loyola de Palacio. Speaking during the "States General for Rail Freight" in Paris, Ms de Palacio pointed out that the "elimination of bottlenecks will be considered a top priority in future guidelines on trans-European networks". The Commission had earlier announced its intention to use, from this year on, EUR 200 million for bottlenecks, a commitment taken in the context of discussions in Council and at the European Parliament on the "rail package" that will open rail freight up to competition as of 2003. For the time being, the European Executive is finding it difficult to identify the priority projects to be financed, among the lists of "bottlenecks" presented by Member States. The Community of European Railways (CER), which groups European operators, has been invited to tackle this subject with the Commission.