Evaluation on Trans European Network – Transport (TEN-T) guidelines 2013–2020

Key points

• The EESC shares the stakeholders' doubt that the Core Network can be completed by 2030, but considers this target important to push Member States to work harder and believes that several major cross-border projects might be completed by that date. From the questionnaires and fact-finding missions, it emerged that the main obstacles to achieving timely implementation of the TEN-T projects include changes in national political priorities.
• Participation and monitoring of civil society regarding corridor and project development are fundamental to implement them in the most appropriate way. Where this has been done at an early stage through widespread information to people, projects are advancing quite well, while where this has not be done, it faces strong resistance from part of the population.
• Maintenance of TEN-T infrastructures is an issue that has been greatly underestimated in several countries where it is now emerging as a serious problem, while in others it has been properly undertaken. The EESC calls for urgent national plans for ordinary and extraordinary maintenance funding and believes that it is appropriate to implement a core network monitoring plan at the European level.
• With regard to territorial cohesion, the EESC considers that Core Network Corridors have to be better linked to the regional, urban and local dimensions. To be in line with the new Commission's geopolitical objectives, it is necessary that the Core Network Corridors are better interconnected with the rest of the world for goods and passengers. As a priority, a Forum should be established including neighbouring countries to facilitate the integration of the TEN-T Network with the rest of the world, widening the macroregional strategies.