WRITTEN QUESTION E-0380/00

by Juan Ojeda Sanz (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 February 2000)

Subject: Improvement of road infrastructures in the central and eastern European states

The considerable injections of funding provided to the so-called applicant states to the Union via various European funding bodies (such as the EIB), and through the Union's budget line (the PHARE programme and the ISPA instrument) should, together with the necessary investments each recipient government is obliged to make, be used to put in place a road network that complies with the principle of interoperability that is necessary to the effective establishment of a single market.

However, it would appear that the use to which this Community funding is being put locally is not producing the desired results. What measures has the Commission put in place to ensure that road projects and transport infrastructure improvement projects in these countries which are financed by Community funding are carried out in accordance with the quality standards considered the norm in the European Union?

Finally, does the Commission intend to make funding conditional upon a road safety impact assessment for all projects deemed essential in the context of the enlarged Union?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(27 March 2000)

Since the early 1990s the PHARE programme has spent almost 1 000 million on investments in the transport infrastructure of the beneficiary countries, thus contributing to the goals highlighted by the Honourable Member. In the last few years this pre-accession aid increasingly mobilised substantial funds and co-financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and international financial institutions (IFIs) as well as from the candidate countries' national budgets.

From this year and onwards the new Instrument for structural policies for pre-accession (ISPA) will increase significantly the investment capacity under Community public funding. Until 2006 the annual budget of 1 040 million will be spent on equal terms on transport infrastructure and environmental measures. As regards transport infrastructure, measures financed under ISPA should promote sustainable mobility, and, in particular, aim at interconnection and interoperability of the national networks of the acceding countries with the trans-European networks including the access to such networks.

In this context the process of selecting priority measures for developing a pan-European transport network has been facilitated by the Transport infrastructure needs assessment (TINA) initiated by the Council in 1995 and carried out with the objective to identify a multi-modal transport network on the territory of the acceding countries comprising road, rail, inland waterways, ports, terminals and airports. It consists of the backbone network, which on the territory of the acceding countries is identical with the links and nodes of the ten multi-modal pan-European transport corridors as endorsed at the third pan-European transport conference in June 1997 in Helsinki, and of additional network components.

According to the Council Regulation (EC) No 1267/1999 of 21 June 1999(1) establishing ISPA, measures related to transport infrastructure shall contribute to the achievement of Community policies in the field of transport and trans-European networks (Article 5 and Annex II). This requires transport projects of common interest to be based on the criteria of Council and Parliament Decision No 1692/96/EC of 23 July 1996(2) on guidelines for TEN-Transport and to comply with the relevant Community policies and standards. For example, in assessing a road infrastructure project proposal the Commission will inter alia examine to what extent the measure contributes to improving road safety, and whether it complies with the above criteria and standards. Investment in traffic management systems aiming at improving traffic safety will also qualify for ISPA funding.

In its annual report on Community assistance granted under ISPA the Commission will also provide information on the assessment of the compatibility of ISPA operations with Community policies, including those concerning transport.

(1) OJ L 161, 26.6.1999.

(2) OJ L 228, 9.9.1996.