The Trans-European Transport Network
The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (EurOP) has recently published a booklet entitled "The Trans-European Transport Network" which sets out the Union's policy with regard to the development of such a network. The European Union believes that an integrated trans-European transport network is essential to enhancing the competitiveness of its economy and to improving the quality of life of its citizens and points out that, while the single market has been a reality since the beginning of 1993, it cannot really deliver its full benefits without a transport system designed to serve a continent rather than just individual nation states. The new publication discusses the issues involved in achieving a trans-European transport network and sets out the thinking behind the new trans-European transport network policy. It discusses the main objectives of that policy and methods of meeting the estimated funding requirements of ECU 220 billion up to 1999 and ECU 400 billion up to 2010. The 54-page document covers the following topics: - A single network for a single economy; - A better quality of life; - More economic vitality, faster growth; - Sustaining the environment; - Establishing the network - bottom up planning; - Fitting the pieces of the network together; - Linking to the east; - Financing the network.