Committee of the regions reports on trans-European transport networks
The Committee of the Regions of the EU has published its opinion on the Commission's 1998 report on the trans-European transport networks (TENs). The trans-European networks policy is a specific instrument designed to contribute directly to the establishment of an area without internal frontiers, with free movement of goods, services and capital. It is also meant to help develop conditions that will promote the EU's competitiveness and help strengthen economic and social cohesion. However, the Committee is 'not convinced that the actual technical and economic development of the TENs policy has managed to maintain a sufficient balance between the pursuit of competitiveness and the pursuit of cohesion'. Policy implementation, it says, seems to be tied more to competitiveness-related criteria than to those related to social and economic cohesion. It therefore gives advice on how to address this imbalance. The TEN-T policy objectives should be expanded, it says, to include an inter-regional accessibility map. 'This should help to reduce disparities between regions by laying down minimum accessibility thresholds for travel to and from all parts of the EU......It is unacceptable that outlying regions should face an additional burden (as a result of geographical distance)', it says. The Committee therefore gives advice on how to improve the TENs both in principle and economically, and suggests what future action could be taken regarding Community guidelines. The full text of the opinion is available in the Official Journal of the European Communities at the reference below.