Opinion on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (95/C 210/02)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:

- Having regard to Articles 129b to 129d of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

- Having regard to the Commission's White Paper on the Future Development of the Common Transport Policy (Doc. COM(92) 494);

- Having regard to the Commission's White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment (Doc. COM(93) 0700-C3-0509/93);

- Having regard to the Commission's Green Paper on The Impact of Transport on the Environment (Doc. COM(92) 46);

- Having regard to the European Parliament's Romera report on common policy in the field of transport infrastructures (A3-0161/91);

- Having regard to Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community's railways;

- Having regard to Council Decisions 93/628/EEC to 630/EEC of 29 October 1993 on the creation of trans-European road, inland waterway and combined transport networks;

- Having regard to the proposal for a Council Regulation laying down general rules for the granting of Community financial aid in the field of trans-European networks (Doc. COM(94) 62);

- Having regard to the proposals for Council Decisions concerning the specific programmes implementing the fourth European Community Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration activities (1994-1998) (Doc. COM(94) 68);

- Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2083/93 of 20 July 1993 on the European Regional Development Fund;

- Having regard to the proposal for a Council Regulation laying down detailed rules for implementing Regulation (EC) No ... establishing a Cohesion Fund (Doc. COM(93) 699);

- Having regard to the conclusions of the Second Pan-European Transport Conference held in Crete on 14-16 June 1994;

- Having regard to the conclusions of the Presidency of the meeting of the European Council of 24-25 June 1994;

at its 4th plenary session of 27/28 September 1994 adopted the following Opinion by a large majority:

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:

- welcomes the Draft Decision as a contribution to a European development model in which environmental protection, growth, competitiveness and employment have a healthy, productive relationship to each other;

- regards the construction of an environmentally sound trans-European transport network as a key factor in making the European economies more competitive;

- also sees the accelerated construction of a trans-European transport network as an opportunity for pursuing an active employment policy, for making it possible to harness technological progress to the improvement of living conditions and for mitigating the impact of transport on people and the environment, particularly in transit regions;

- highlights the need for modal networks to be consolidated into a comprehensive common blueprint for the development of a trans-European transport network with the local authorities concerned being involved in the decision-making process;

- with this proviso notes with satisfaction that the Council Decisions of 29 October 1993 on the creation of trans-European road, inland waterway and combined transport networks have been incorporated in this multimodal approach;

- shares the view that a jointly developed approach is the only way of guaranteeing interoperability and exploiting the comparative advantages of the individual modes of transport; and thinks that priority should always be given in this context to the more environmentally sound projects, particularly when they are supported from the public purse;

- stresses the positive impact on Europe's economic growth and cohesion of the development of an integrated infrastructure network and of simultaneous harmonization of transport technology and management, as long as the regional authorities responsible for land-use planning are given powers of joint decision, thus guaranteeing transparency and closeness to the individual citizen;

- points out that Article 130r of the Treaty makes environmental policy an integral part of all other Community policies, and that this principle must always be rigorously applied, particularly in the field of transport policy, in view of transport's major impact on the environment;

- calls on the Council to make sure that the Community blueprint for the trans-European network is not merely an amalgam of national network plans, but that there is sufficient coordination of the transport networks across national boundaries and modes; and thinks that the regional authorities should be involved here, particularly in transit areas;

- calls for the Decision to include selection procedures for networks and priority projects, as well as monitoring procedures, with a view to establishing on-going planning; and thinks that when objectives and priorities are fixed, economic profitability should be specifically included as a selection criterion, with due regard being paid to external environmental costs;

- expects the contribution to the financing of projects of common interest to be arranged as rapidly as possible;

- urges that, in adopting this and future decisions and in establishing priorities, the Commission and the Council take account of the proposals and interests of the regions, and provide them with prompt access to all information, thus creating the conditions for true co-determination.

I. Comments on the general principles (Articles 2-7)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:

1. points out that the Treaty does not empower the Community to make the construction and development of trans-European networks a legal obligation on the Member States, but shares the view that measures coordinated with the Member States under the second paragraph of Article 129d require them to give priority to implementation at national level, and calls for the regional and local authorities concerned to be involved in this process of coordination and for decisions to be taken jointly with the regions where under national law they have statutory responsibility for development and land-use planning;

2. agrees with the Commission that socially acceptable and environmentally sound mobility can be achieved only via an intermodal approach, but feels that this should be framed jointly with all the interested parties, including the regional authorities;

3. welcomes the Commission's aim of integrating inaccessible regions, the island and peripheral regions, the EFTA countries, the Mediterranean and central and eastern Europe more closely into the existing network, and thus of helping to eliminate the peripheral regions' development deficit;

- highlights the need to accommodate these requirements and expectations in the planning and decision-making process;

4. shares the view that the traffic management and control system is part of the trans-European transport network within the meaning of Articles 129b) and c) of the EU Treaty and stresses that lack of compatibility is a major hindrance;

5. points out that the resources in the Fourth R& D Framework Programme earmarked for the transport sector are insufficient for the necessary groundwork; and thinks that the Programme should also include detailed studies of intra-Community freight movements;

6. emphatically supports the call for all costs, including external (e.g. environmental) costs, to be included in the calculation of the total infrastructure charges of the various modes of transport, in order to make the environmentally sound modes competitive;

7. points out that the evaluation of environmental impact should not begin only as the network is developed, as suggested by the Commission in its discussion of further measures in relation to the objectives set out in Article 2 (point 43 of the Explanatory Memorandum), but that environmental soundness should, rather, be considered from the outset in relation to all projects and measures; this is the only way to guarantee an intact environment as an existential basis - in the economic sense too - particularly in ecologically vulnerable areas such as the Alps;

8. sees a danger that for lack of clear objectives and priorities in the current proposal, the construction and expansion of trans-European networks will not take sufficient account of efficiency and environmental criteria and will take far longer to achieve than projected under the deadlines set;

9. calls for the increased transfer of traffic from the roads to environmentally-friendly modes of transport, and therefore considers that the individual sections of the networks should be ranked in order of priority;

10. feels that combined transport projects and environmentally sound cross-border railway and inland waterway projects which meet a real need should be given priority over other specific networks, particularly in conurbations and in the central regions of the Community which are affected by a high volume of transit traffic;

11. assigns these three networks a key role in multimodal passenger and freight transport and feels that - particularly in regions severely affected by transport - priority support for these planned networks is a prerequisite for establishing an environmentally acceptable transport market able to guarantee sustainable mobility;

12. is pleased to note that the 11 priority projects proposed by the Commission largely meet these criteria, but particularly regrets that the choice of these 11 top projects was made exclusively by the Commission and the governments of the Member States represented in the Council, and that neither the European Parliament nor the Committee of the Regions was given the opportunity to express its views;

- regrets the inadequate coordination between the Commission's work on the guidelines and network schemes and the discussions of the group of personal representatives of the Heads of State and Government (Christophersen Group) set up on the basis of the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment;

- therefore calls for the high-priority transport projects adopted by the European Council at its meeting in Corfu of 24-25 June 1994 to be classified, in implementing the proposal for a Decision, as projects of common interest and for the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament to be consulted on these projects;

13. urges that the COR be consulted promptly before any choice is made in the desirable event of further priority projects being selected; and that it be given the opportunity to participate in the selection process.

II. Comments on individual, modal networks (Articles 8-23)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:

14. feels it necessary to make the following comments on the road network:

- reiterates its view that, above all for environmental reasons, road traffic should be reduced and wider use should be made of rail and inland-waterway transport, in order to secure Europe's long-term future as a business location and to improve people's quality of life, particularly as some ecologically vulnerable areas are already at saturation point;

- is convinced that, even if the policy of traffic prevention and transfer is entirely successful, the roads will continue to carry a substantial proportion of total traffic, and that everything possible must therefore be done to mitigate the resulting damage to the environment;

- at the same time stresses that in each individual case transport interests will need to be carefully weighed up against the objectives of land-use planning, protection of the environment and nature and urban planning, and that this can only be done with the full involvement of the regional authorities;

- given that the trans-European road network is to facilitate access to peripheral regions in the interests of improved land-use planning, feels that here too there is a need to give regional interests equal weight in the discussion of guidelines and to consult the affected regions with a view to achieving joint solutions;

- welcomes and supports the proposal to ensure that traffic on existing motorways can, as far as possible, flow safely and without impediment and thus with less damage to the environment;

- therefore supports the introduction and expansion of modern traffic guidance and information systems, e.g. systems for influencing traffic flow, the coordination of traffic control centres, the Europe-wide support and improvement of traffic message radio channels;

- agrees with the Commission that the various telematics systems must be interoperable;

- calls for the integration of public local passenger transport in tandem with the development of telematics systems;

- urges that the foundations be laid as soon as possible for a Community system of traffic management and telematics;

15. endorses the high importance which the Commission attaches to the railway network;

- confirms the need to separate track operators from suppliers of transport services;

- points out that capacity bottlenecks are in many cases not so much the result of inadequate track capacity, as of problems at nodes;

- notes with satisfaction that the Commission is to support the technical harmonization of track, rolling stock and systems of control and command and calls for the further development of telematics systems beyond the realm of road transport;

- draws attention to the scale of the efforts being made by certain countries to adapt their national track gauges to the European gauge, to construct new lines and to upgrade existing ones;

16. supports the view that inland waterway transport and coastal shipping are cost-effective, safe and environmentally sound means of transport and that their infrastructure must be expanded in line with needs and their efficiency improved;

- suggests that the Commission, in carrying out further preparations for a trans-European transport network, attach great importance to the major role which both large and small sea and internal waterway ports will play in a future European infrastructure;

17. calls, as a matter of priority, for improvements in use of airport capacity, in operating and general safety at airports and in airport access to interfaces with other transport networks of Community importance;

calls for transfer to other modes or transport, especially rail, in this area too;

stresses that airports too ought to be part of combined transport and should therefore be included in the combined transport blueprints;

18. points out that in combined transport a clearer distinction must be drawn between rail, road and inland waterway, and feels that the combined transport network must be examined and discussed in detail in close cooperation and coordination with the Committee of the Regions in order to prevent duplication of services;

- regrets that the projects set out in the network schemes of annex 1 and the lists of annex 2 are to a great extent incomplete and in some cases unclear. The annexes need to be comprehensively revised and coordinated with the relevant national and regional plans, inter alia with a view to enlargement of the EU, and to be constantly updated.

III.

Comments on the common provisions (Articles 24-29)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS:

19. supports the Commission's efforts to establish a multimodal telematics system employing modern satellite technology;

20. welcomes the Commission's intention of informing the Committee of the Regions of progress, considers continuous reporting as essential and calls on all Community bodies to study the COR's proposals in detail and to seek joint solutions with it;

instructs its Chairman to forward this Opinion to the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee.

Done at Brussels, 28 September 1994.

The Chairman

of the Committee of the Regions

Jacques BLANC