10/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the European Council of 16/17 June, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot warned Member States that they would have to abandon some of the 30 priority trans-European transport network projects if less than EUR 20 bn is allocated for TEN-T in the upcoming Financial Perspectives (the Commissioner feels that EUR 20 bn is the minimum possible funding, see EUROPE 8883). In an interview with the Financial Times, Barrot said that if governments decide to make savings and since he had been told he would have to make savings, he wanted to promote a genuinely coherent rail policy, helping build major rail routes, that than distribute funding thinly over all the projects. He said there would probably be a political battle if the list was debated again, but it was necessary to ensure every avenue of the funding available was used as effectively as possible.