Naples, 07/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - At the 4/5 July Transport Council in Naples chaired by Italian minister Pietro Lunardi, the Presidency announced that the “Naples Charter” for trans-European transport networks (TEN-T) would be presented to the October Transport Council. On the fringes of the meeting, five Member States signed a joint statement about developing “motorways at sea” (see other article). The broad outlines of the Van Miert report on TEN-T were presented by Karel Van Miert, President of the high level group (see EUROPE of 1 July, p.7), and the Commission's Communication on a EuroMed transport network was presented by Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio (see EUROPE of 24 June, p.9).
The Naples Charter notes the Commission's plan to present a revised proposal for TEN-T and urges the proposal be unveiled as soon as possible. It stressed the European dimension of various infrastructure projects, which therefore extend beyond the responsibility of Member States alone (Spain is reported to have been particularly insistent about this). The Charter calls on the Commission to develop options for the new funding schemes outlined in its April 2003 Communication (see EUROPE of 23 April, p.10), and "initiatives" to enhance coordination between Member States.
Stressing once again that the European transport network had to be extended to relaunch the EU's economy, and therefore fully supporting the Van Miert report, Pietro Lunardi hailed the adoption of the Charter “supported by all the ministers”. He noted, however, that a fleshed-out draft (with more details of finance, such as the idea of launching a European Transport Fund and creating project coordination and monitoring mechanisms) unveiled by the Presidency on Friday had not been accepted by the delegations, which had led to the adoption of this “slimmed down” version.
Also welcoming the Charter, Commissioner Loyola de Palacio noted that the 2007-2013 Financial Perspectives for the TEN-T would have to “multiplied by seven" to "EUR four billion a year". Asked about the impact of this on the Stability Pact, de Palacio said she had not mentioned relaxing the Stability Pact. Echoing Lunardi, she said the issue concerned finance ministers rather than transport ministers.
In a speech on Friday, de Palacio again regretted the lack of political will in the Member States underpinning the development of the TEN-T. She outlined a series of options to deal with this, some of them mentioned in the Van Miert report, such as creating light coordination and monitoring mechanisms in the short run for each main axis.
In the longer term (the next five years), the Commissioner argued it would be necessary to consider a specifically European structure to encourage investors and manage EU funds. This idea was not warmly accepted by the Member States. Apart from Italy (which had already mentioned the idea in a questionnaire sent to the delegations, see Europe of 4 July, p.10) and Spain, most delegations (particularly the UK, France, Germany, Portugal and Belgium) expressed reservations about the idea, preferring to remain the masters in this connection themselves.
Luxembourg still hoping the Eurocaprail project will be
incorporated in the list of TEN-T priorities
Luxembourg's economics minister Henri Grethen expressed his confidence in the Eurocaprail project in an interview with Europe. Eurocaprail is a high speed train link between Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, included as one of the priorities listed by the Commission as eligible for EU funding when it outlines its revised TEN-T proposal.
Grethen regretted that Luxembourg was the only country ignored by the priority projects, despite having submitted a project meeting the criteria set by the Van Miert group (see EUROPE of 24 June, p.8 and 1 July, p.7).
Holding Karel Van Miert as solely responsible for this choice, and assured of Belgium and France's support, Grethen said he was confident that the importance of the project would be understood by Commissioner Loyola de Palacio.