EC APPROVES TRANS-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS

EC APPROVES TRANS-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS    The European Commission adopted on Wednesday a funding program for major transport infrastructure projects for the period 2001 to 2006.
   The EC allocated 2.78 billion euro ($2.56 billion) to a range of road, rail, air and intermodal projects across the European Union that it selected as part of its “Trans-European Transport Network” long-term program.
   “The selected projects will contribute to meeting our key transport policy challenges as outlined in the Commission White Paper on Transport adopted on Sept. 12: shifting the balance between different modes of transport, fighting bottlenecks and congestion and placing quality and security at the heart of the common transport policy,” said Loyola de Palacio, EC commissioner in charge of energy and transport.
   Of    the amount proposed for the 2001-2006 program, over 1.3 billion euro ($1.2 billion) will be allocated to infrastructure projects endorsed in 1994 by the European Council of EU members states in Essen.
   These comprise high-speed railway projects, such as the
Paris-Brussels-K'ln/Frankfurt-Amsterdam-London project, a link between France and Germany, links in Germany and Austria, the France/Italy link, the Betuwe railway freight line in the Netherlands, and sections in Finland and Sweden.
   More than 550 million euro ($507 million) will be assigned to the “Galileo” project, the European satellite navigation system.
   About 640 million euro ($589 million) will be allocated to projects dealing with “railway bottlenecks” and cross-border projects.
   The fourth plank of the Trans-European Transport Network program is the development of so-called “intelligent transport systems” for road and air transport sectors, which will receive about 280 million euro ($258 million). For air transport, a trans-European air traffic management system will be developed, in line with the EC’s “single European sky” policy.
   The EC said that the projects will also include studies for the construction of a bridge between Denmark and Germany over the Fehmarnbelt and several inland waterway projects.