Allied transport projects in a promising dialogue with DG MOVE at the TEN-T Days

The European Commission arranged for the fourth time a conference dedicated to the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T). Representatives from the Commission, the EU Parliament, national ministries and many other stakeholders met for the last two days of November in Antwerp, to discuss the new TEN-T framework with the revised guidelines and the “Connect Europe Facility (CEF)” proposal as an integrated instrument for investments in EU infrastructure priorities in Transport, Energy and Telecommunications summing up to 50 billion EUR for 2014-2020.

In times of ongoing economic crisis those three components are considered the cornerstones in achieving the “Europe 2020” overarching goal of “growth” and the CEF proposal has the intention to harmonise the three sectors. As the revised TEN-T guidelines have changed approach from a former patchwork of infrastructure priorities to a connected network covering all EU member states in a dual layer of a Core network to be established by 2030 and a Comprehensive network to be realised by 2050, a regional perspective is still of importance. TranBaltic together with allied transnational transport projects in the BSR & NSR Programme got the opportunity for a private discussion with Mr Jean-Eric Paquet, Director, European Mobility Network/DG MOVE, as a follow up to the sent letter of intent from the alliance expressing their will to assist in the development focusing on the green transport corridors as a measure to combine the optimised performance of multimodal supply chains with sustainable regional growth and territorial cohesion. Mr Paquet welcomed the initiative, expressing his wish to see Interreg projects involved in the process and recommended the group to continue the discussions with his colleagues at DG MOVE, with a first meeting for such cooperation to take place at TransBaltic Umbrella seminar hosted by NDPTL in Helsinki, 27 Jan 2012.