WRITTEN QUESTION E-2466/01 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. A high-speed rail link between Galicia and Central Europe via France.
Date: 2001-09-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, France, Galicia, common transport policy, financial aid, high-speed transport, rail network, trans-European network

16.5.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 115 E/91

Galician and Spanish authorities are presenting the building of this tiny stretch as the beginning of the
highspeed rail link between Galicia, Porto and Lisbon, Madrid and Central Europe, taking it for granted
that European Union co-funding is to be forthcoming under the programmes for 200-2006. In the face of
these claims, the Portuguese Government is raising doubts about the construction of the highspeed rail
link between Porto and Vigo, apparently preferring to duplicate the centralist option with the Porto-Madrid
and Lisbon-Madrid links, while the Spanish Government was not provided any verifiable proof that it plans
a genuine highspeed link between Galicia and the rest of Europe, or even that the requisite Spanish and
Community budgetary allocations for 2000-2006 for the link itself actually exist. Can the Commission
therefore ) in view of its responsibilities, decisions, and budgetary forecasts ) provide an answer to the
doubts and questions which have been raised, so that the people of Galicia are in possession of proper
information and can take whatever democratic decisions they deem necessary on an issue of enormous
importance to their future?

(2002/C 115 E/095)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2466/01

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(11 September 2001)

Subject: A high-speed rail link between Galicia and Central Europe via France

Within the Trans-European Networks, what are the political and budgetary provisions for a high-speed rail
link between North-West Spain, and Galicia in particular, and Central Europe via France?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2455/01 and E-2466/01
given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(7 November 2001)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its answers to Written Questions E-2189/01 (1)
and E-2030/01 (2). The only recent development has been the formal adoption by the Commission on
2 October 2001 of a proposal to amend Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport
network (3) and a proposal to amend Council Regulation (EC) No 2236/95 of 18 September 1995 laying
down general rules for the granting of Community financial aid in the field of trans-European networks (4).

These proposals have been sent to Parliament and the Council. The first is designed to focus Community
action on a number of new priorities and ‘specific’ projects, comprising those projects selected by the
European Councils of Essen on 9 and 10 December 1994 and Dublin on 13 and 14 December 1996
which have not yet been completed and eight new projects. The second proposal is designed to increase
the maximum Community contribution to certain critical trans-European network projects,
including
railway bottlenecks crossing natural barriers, to 20 % of investment.

As the Commission has already announced in its White Paper ‘European transport policy for 2010’ (5), the
eight projects referred to above include the interoperability of the Iberian high-speed rail network on the
basis of the Spanish and Portuguese national plans. As the Honourable Member has already been informed,
this project includes Galicia’s high-speed rail links.

(1) See page 36.
(2) OJ C 93 E, 18.4.2002, p. 49.
(3) OJ L 228, 9.9.1996.
(4) OJ L 228, 23.9.1995.
(5) COM(2001) 370 final.