CELEX: 51988PC0340
Language: en
Date: 1988-06-16
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION FOR AN ACTION PROGRAMME IN THE FIELD OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE WITH A VIEW TO THE COMPLETION OF AN INTEGRATED TRANSPORT MARKET IN 1992

N o C 270/6                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                19. 10. 88
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Regulation for an action programme in the field of transport infra-
             structure with a view to the completion of an integrated transport market in 1992
                                                    COM(88) 340 final
                             (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 23 June 1988)
                                                       (88/C 270/05)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         Whereas specific financial support for transport infra-
                                                                 structure projects can provide an essential stimulus to the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            promotion and launching of projects of Community
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 75 and            interest;
84 thereof,
                                                                 Whereas the application of private-sector capital can
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               contribute to the implementation of transport infra-
                                                                 structure projects; and whereas the 'declaration of
Having regard      to   the  opinion   of   the  European        European interest' procedure, once adopted by the
Parliament,                                                      Council, would help to channel private-sector capital
                                                                 towards major projects of European interest;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                                Whereas it is important to ensure that projects are
                                                                 properly coordinated and their financing efficiently
Whereas the Commission has defined in the medium                 programmed; and whereas it is therefore appropriate for
term programme for transport infrastructure (') the              financial support to be granted in the framework of a
policy to implement in the field of transport infra-             programme;
structure;
                                                                 Whereas it is important to define the scope of such a
Whereas the completion of the internal market and a              programme, in particular by its direct objectives and the
common transport policy call for a Community action              measures to be carried out;
programme aimed at the harmonious development of
transport networks in the Community;                             Whereas the value to the Community of the projects to
                                                                 be assisted ought to be established on the basis of
Whereas the setting up of rapid and efficient links              objective criteria;
between all regions of the Community is an essential
condition for reinforcing its economic and social                Whereas Community assistance is necessary at all stages
cohesion;                                                        of the projects and especially in their launch phase,
Whereas it is necessary to take account of both the              HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
interests of u$ers and the demands of environmental
protection, safety and the rational use of energy;                                        Article 1
                                                                 The Community shall contribute to transport infra-
Whereas infrastructure projects can have an impact on
                                                                 structure projects of Community interest within the
the development of new technologies, the improvement
                                                                 framework of the action programme defined below and
of industrial competitiveness and the revival of
                                                                 aimed at:
employment;
                                                                 — the elimination of bottlenecks,
Whereas Community action through the structural
Funds, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the                — the integration of areas which, geographically, are
other financial instruments can contribute to the building           either landlocked or situated on the periphery of the
of transport infrastructure works of Community interest;             Community,
                                                                 — the reduction of costs associated with transit traffic
                                                                     in cooperation with any non-member countries
(') COM(86) 340 of 27. 6. 1986.                                      concerned,
 ---pagebreak--- r^ t o ^                               Official journal of the European Communities                             ^ooe^OBB
— the improvement of links on landBsea routes,                                               Ar^c^^
                                                                  The eligibility of transport infrastructure projects for
— the provision of high-quality links between the major           financial support shall be assessed on the basis of the
     urban centres, including high-speed rail links.              following criteria^
                                                                  — The benefit of the project to the community,
The Community^scontributionmay,among other things,                    assessedby itscontributionto theobjectivessetout
take the form of a declaration of European interest,                  in Article ID Among the factors ^vhich must be
within the meaning of Article^of council foecision^m                  included are^
of Dm on the financing of large-scale infrastructure                  — the importance of present or potential intraD
projects of European interest, financial assistance                        community internal traffic,
through appropriations provided for this purposeinthe                 — the importance of exchanges between the
budget of the European communities and, ^vhere                             community and non^^iember states on the route
applicable,through other financial instruments.                            involved in the project,
                                                                      — the extent of the projects contributions to the
                                                                           creation of an homogenous and balanced network
                                                                           within the community framework, geared to
Theprogramme,^hichshallbelaunched^ithaninte                                existing and future transport needs^
grated transport market in vie^v, shall cover the
follo^ving^
                                                                  — The socio-economic return on the projects
— studies and preparatory ^rork to be defined following
     consultation ^ith the Transport Infrastructure               — whether the project is consistent ^ith other
     Committee,                                                       community measures under the common transport
                                                                      policyor other community policies, and^vithother
— construction of acombinedtransport network based                    national measures given priority in national transport
     on the results of the study no^v underlay,                       infrastructure plans and projects.
— development of ne^ telecommunication and telein
     formation technologies to improve the management                                        A ^ c ^
     of road traffic and information to car and                    t.   community financial support maybe granted for
     commercial vehicle drivers,                                  feasibility studies or preparatory ^vork for infrastructure
                                                                  projects, for related schemes and for the development of
— improvement of theFaris^adridBarcelonaiisbonD                   apartofthe^vholeof aproject.
     PortoDAlgeciras road and rail transit routes,
— improvement of infrastructure associated ^ith the               ^. The appropriations specifically entered in the
     channel tunnel,                                              budget of the European communities to contribute to
                                                                  the financing of transport infrastructure projects may
— constructionofahighspeed rail line between Paris,               take the form of subsidies or any other form required by
     London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne,                        the financial structure of the project.
— improvement of the ^orth^outh transit link in                   ^5 The share of the specific appropriations in the
     Irelandtoserve theports of Larne, Belfast, foublin           financing ofaproject may not e^ceed^^o of the total
     andR.osslare,                                                cost of the project or of that part of the project granted
                                                                  assistance. This contribution may be increased to a
— modernizationof the l^orth^outhinland^ater^ay                   maximum of ^ 0 ^ in the case of studies prior to
     network between the Netherlands, Belgium and                 construction^vork.
     France,
— construction of the Scandinavian link,                          ^. The contributions from all community budget
                                                                  sources may not, asageneral rule, exceed ^ O ^ o f the
— modernization of the transit routes between southern            total cost of the project or of thatpart of the project
     GermanyBItalyDGreece,                                        granted assistance, except in cases ^diere higher rates of
                                                                  contribution are provided for.
— international links in frontier areas,
                                                                  ^. Aproject may be granted community support only
— improvement of other Alpine transit routes, in                 if the obligations under community la^v concerning
     particular for access to Italy.                             public procurement are met in full
 ---pagebreak--- No C 270/8                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                19. 10. 88
                          Article 6                               consultation. procedure established by Council Decision
                                                                  78/174/EEC (2).
1. Where the financial instruments referred to in
Article 2 are used, the rules and the procedures proper to
each shall be followed.                                                                     Article 8
                                                                  The Commission, following consultation of the
2. In respect of the specific appropriations, grant               Transport Infrastructure Committee established by
applications shall be sent to the Commission through the          Decision 78/174/EEC on the evaluation and technical
Member States or through any agency or body                       aspects of projects, shall decide on the grant of financial
empowered by one or more Member States to undertake               support. The financial support shall be granted in
a project of Community interest.                                  accordance with Article 5; the amount shall take account
                                                                  of the interest of projects as assessed on the criteria set
                                                                  out in Article 4.
Each application shall include the background infor-
mation necessary and in particular:
                                                                                            Article 9
— an itemized list of forecast expenditure,                       1. Where a project which has received financial
                                                                  support has not been carried out as planned, or where
— a schedule of work and financial commitments,                   the conditions imposed are not fulfilled, the financial
                                                                  support may be reduced or cancelled if the Commission
— information necessary for the evaluation of the                 so decides after considering the explanations given by
    Community interest of the project,                            the beneficiary.
                                                                  Any sum paid incorrectly shall be repaid to the
— a non-technical summary of the environmental                    Community by the beneficiary within 12 months of the
    impact assessment carried out in accordance with              date of notification of such decision.
     Council Directive 85/337/EEC 0).
                                                                  2. Without prejudice to checks carried out by the
                                                                  Member States in accordance with national laws, regu-
3. The Member States or bodies referred to in
                                                                  lations or administrative provisions, and without
paragraph 1 shall provide the Commission with any
                                                                  prejudice to the provisions of Article 206 (1) and Article
further information it considers necessary for assessing a        209 (c) of the Treaty, on-the-spot checks or enquiries in
project.                                                          respect of projects receiving financial support shall be
                                                                  carried out by the competent authorities of the Member
                          Article 7                               State concerned and by representatives of the
                                                                  Commission, or other persons authorized for this
 1. Each year, no later than the submission of the                purpose by the latter. The Commission shall determine
preliminary draft budget for the following financial year,        deadlines for the performance of checks and as a
the Commission shall send to Parliament and the                   preliminary inform the Member States in order to receive
Council a communication describing the projects in                all necessary assistance.
respect of which applications have been received in
accordance with Article 6 and which are eligible, under           3. The purpose of these on-the-spot checks or
the action programme and in the light of the objectives           enquiries relating to operations receiving financial
laid down in Article 1, for support from the specific             support is to ascertain:
 appropriations referred to in Article 2 of this Regulation.
                                                                  (a) the conformity of administrative practices with
                                                                       Community rules;
 2. The description referred to in paragraph 1 shall
 include at least the following background information:           (b) the existence of supporting documents and the fact
                                                                       that they correspond;
— the main grounds for the eligibility of the project             (c) the conditions under which operations are executed
     under Articles 1 and 3;                                           and checked;
— the size and nature of the financial support proposed;          (d) the conformity of the projects carried out with the
                                                                       conditions subject to which financial support was
                                                                       granted.
— the background information set out in Article 6 (2).
                                                                  4. The Commission may suspend payment of aid in
3. Since the requirements of paragraph 1 cannot be                respect of an operation if a check reveals irregularities or
met in the launching period of the programme, a list of           a substantial change in the nature of conditions of the
projects considered to be eligible is annexed. This list          project for which the Commission's approval has not
was prepared on the basis of this Regulation and takes            been sought.
account of the national programmes presented in the
(') OJ No L 175, 5. 7. 1985, p. 40.                               O OJ No L 54, 25. 2. 1978, p. 16.
 ---pagebreak--- 19. 10. 88                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No C 270/9
                          Article 10                                                           Article 11
The Commission will send to the Council and to                        This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its
Parliament before 31 December 1991 a report on the                    publication in the Official Journal of the European
experience gained in the action programme.                             Communities.
Before 31 December 1992, on the basis of this report,
the Council will decide, on a proposal from the
Commission, the continuation of the transport infra-                  It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable
structure programme from 1 January 1993.                              in all Member States.
                                                              ANNEX
             SCHEMES CONSIDERED TO MERIT INCLUSION IN THE LAUNCHING PHASE OF THE
                                          ACTION PROGRAMME IN 1988 AND 1989
                                                 Action: Combined transport network
              1. Rail projects: Widening of the loading gauge, United Kingdom/Benelux/Italy, tunnels:
                 — Belgian frontier-Dijon
                 — Amberieu-Modane
                 Action: Improvement of road and rail transit routes Paris-Madrid-Barcelona-Lisbon-Porto-Algeciras
              2. (Rail projects) Modernization of the Lisbon-Porto line ('Linha do Norte')
              3. Construction of a new line, Lisbon-Evora-Elvas (Madrid)
              4. Construction of a Guadarrama tunnel and approaches for a new north access to Madrid ('Accesso
                 Norte')
              5. Construction of a new Zaragoza-Lerida section on the Madrid-Barcelona line,
              6. Construction of a new line Madrid-Cordoba-Sevilla (Algerciras),
              7. (Road projects) Works for a new two-lane dual carriageway, Lisbon/Porto-Coimbra-Vilar Formoso
              8. Modernization of the Lisbon-Evora-Elvas road
              9. Completion of the Madrid-Burgos expressway
             10. Completion of the Madrid-Zaragoza expressway
             11. Completion of the Madrid-Lisbon expressway
             12. Modernization of the N 620, Burgos-Portuguese border
             13. Completion of the Madrid-Sevilla-Algerciras expressway.
                              Action: Improvement of infrastructure associated with the Channel tunnel
             14. (Rail projects) New fast rail links between Paris and London connected with the Channel tunnel, on
                 the sections:
                 — Channel tunnel-London
                 — Channel tunnel-Paris
             15. (Road projects) Completion of a motorway link from the tunnel exit to Rouen
             16. Expressway, Channel tunnel-Belgian frontier
             17. New motorway (E 40), French border-Veurne
             18. M 2 motorway London-Dover, provision of additional capacity
             19. Completion of the M 20 motorway Dover-London, sections:
                 — Maidstone by-pass
                 — Folkestone-Dover (A 20).
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 270/10                           Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s           19. 10. 88
                   Action: Construction of a high-speed railway line, London-Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam-Cologne
           20. (Rail) Construction of new or up-graded facilities for high-speed trains, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam,
                Cologne
                                Action: Improvement of the North-South transit route in Ireland
                 (Road)
           21. — Dublin ring road
           22. — Balbriggan by-pass
           Action: Modernization of the North-South inland waterways network between the Netherlands, Belgium
                    and France
           23. (Waterways) Improvement and widening of the Zuid-Beveland canal
                                         Action: Construction of the 'Scandinavian link'
           24. (Rail/road) Sjelland-Fynnen fixed link
           25. (Road) Completion of the small 'h' motorway
                           Action: Modernization of the transit route Southern Germany/Italy-Greece
           26. (Rail) Doubling and up-grading of the N-S rail line in Greece: Idomeni-Thessaloniki-Alexandro-
               polis/Athens
           27. Modernization of the line in Greece: Athens-Patrai
           28. (Road) Completion of the Evzoni-Athens motorway
           29. Completion of the Athens-Korintos-Patrai motorway
                                          Action: International links in frontier regions
           30. (Road) Motorway connection Germany-The Netherlands around Venlo.
                Sections:
               — BAB 61-Venlo (Venlo-Tegelen)
               — Boxmeer-Venlo
           31. Completion of the motorway Borne-German frontier
           32. Modernization of Pyrenean crossings
                                                    Action: Alpine links to Italy
           33. (Rail) Works on Brenner pass route