It was almost two decades ago that the idea of a trans European transport network connecting the European Union’s Member States was first suggested. As the project matures, Jean-Eric Paquet – the European Commission’s Acting Director in charge of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) – explains what the new challenges are

In the mid-1990s, when the plans for the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) were formally approved by the EU, the idea was to link core national networks for all modes of transport. And making them both interconnected and interoperable was seen as fundamental to securing a single market, and boosting economic growth, social cohesion, competitiveness and environmental sustainability. Fourteen high-profile TEN-T projects were identified, and over the years, with successive enlargements, that has grown to 30.

However, the course of these plans has not always been smooth: progress on many projects has faltered due to funding issues - especially from member states and the private sector - or difficulties building across borders, and that was even before the current economic crisis. Only five have been completed, 16 projects are not scheduled to be finished until 2020 at the earliest, with the remainder to be completed by 2025.

But Jean-Eric Paquet – the Commission’s Acting Director in charge of TEN-Ts - says the new Commission is committed to keeping them on track. Paquet says there are many reasons for the patchy progress. For a start, there is a lack of interest from many member states in funding projects that are of Europe-wide importance. “Too many projects are of local political importance for some member states,” he says. “These projects are carried by member states, so this is a national competence.” He points out that many countries, especially in the eastern part of Europe, have an acute need for improved road networks: better roads contribute to less congestion, less emissions, better safety, and better services.

Leaving member states to oversee the construction also means that there is often a lack of coordination, project preparation and planning. Many projects are delayed because of poor design and incomplete preparation, and are therefore not ready to absorb the planned public support. Member States traditionally emphasize national and regional planning against EU priorities, resulting in a fragmented development of the transport networks in Europe.

But the Commission has been particularly frustrated about insufficient public funding: for 2007–13, national funding represents €196 billion and the EU contribution only €51 billion while the investment needs are estimated at €350 billion, revealing a massive funding gap.

The economic crisis has not helped: at a time when finance ministries will look at ways to decrease public expenditure, there is a risk that capital investments will be sacrificed or delayed. “The economic crisis will have an impact on infrastructure as public budgets have constraints,” says Paquet. “It is not yet clear if it is having an impact on TEN-Ts now as many decisions were taken before the crisis. But it will have an impact over the longer term.”

Despite the problems, the Commission still believes that the TEN-T’s should remain EU priorities, and is currently planning an overhaul to ensure that national governments maintain their commitment to them. The TEN-T policy review is part of a larger approach underlying the future White Paper on Transport, to renew the strategy defined in 2001. It is also part of the Europe 2020 strategy to succeed the Lisbon strategy that was adopted in March. The reforms should bring more TEN-T control in the hands of the EU institutions, moving them away from loosely interconnected national plans to European plans. “We will guide the member states more strongly, but that won’t mean running their infrastructure policy,” Paquet says.

Paquet explains that the review will create a ‘core network’ that will be overlaid onto the map of the 30 TEN-T projects. This network aims to ensure optimal integration of all infrastructure and interconnection between modes. “It will aim to bring the 27 transport networks together to give them an obvious physical reality,” Paquet says. “The core network will be multimodal, and will pay more attention to inter-modality.”

It could also become the basis for the deployment of various innovative approaches, for example in terms of transport pricing. It would focus on missing border crossings and on smoothing out interoperability problems, for example, speeding up work on common signalling standards for European railways. “There will be a bit of overlap,” Paquet says. “It is like a meta-network. It will be less dense, build on existing 30 projects, but with better modal links and better geographical spread to counterbalance the current haphazard map.”

Paquet says the way the network is developed is especially important: the core will include the 27 member states capitals, and ports and entry points. It will reflect the main long-distance and international traffic flow patterns, and aim to reflect the long-term needs of the EU. And it should also allow investment needs and projects to be derived top-down, unlike the existing 30 priority projects. It will also target more limited investment, so available more quickly. “It will be devised from a European perspective and focus on where transport demand exceeds existing capacity,” he says. “It has already been discussed, and broadly supported, by parliament and member states.”

One of the biggest bottlenecks he identifies is in the rail system, where the EU has still to fully harmonize systems and markets. “There are limited physical connections and limited technical interoperability,” he says. Another is in major natural barriers, with the Alps and Pyrenees being two cases; sensitive environmental concerns have, for example, the Lyon-Turin link.

But he warns that the long-term aspect of the projects can give the impression of deadlock. “From one year to another, progress is not spectacular, and that’s not surprising,” he says. “But we should recognise that when we started in 1990s, we had a fragmented market. And apart from rail, it is much more integrated.”

And Paquet is also proud of the achievements. He points to the high speed trains linking Brussels, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Cologne, which have made travel so much simpler and faster. And the Oresund bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen, which is multimodal – carrying both road and rail – and a successful public-private partnership. “It has profoundly changed economies of regions, and eased access of people,” he says.

(photo: Jean-Eric Paquet)