Czech Republic
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Study on Strategic Evaluation on Transport Investment Priorities under Structural and Cohesion funds for the Programming Period 2007-2013 No 2005.CE.16.0.AT.014 Country Report Czech Republic Final Client: European Commission, DG-REGIO ECORYS Nederland BV Rotterdam, October 2006 ECORYS Nederland BV P.O. Box 4175 3006 AD Rotterdam Watermanweg 44 3067 GG Rotterdam The Netherlands T +31 (0)10 453 88 00 F +31 (0)10 453 07 68 E [email protected] W www.ecorys.com Registration no. 24316726 ECORYS Transport T +31 (0)10 453 87 59 F +31 (0)10 452 36 80 Table of contents 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Background 7 1.2 The Strategic Evaluation 8 1.3 The Country Report 8 1.4 Structure of the report 8 2 Transport Sector: current situation 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Czech Republic 10 2.3 Situation per mode of transport 11 2.3.1 Roads and road transport 11 2.3.2 Railways 15 2.3.3 Urban transport 18 2.3.4 Inland waterway transport 19 2.3.5 Airports 19 2.3.6 Qualitative assessment of transport systems 20 2.4 Trends and indicators 21 2.5 Current Transport policy 22 2.5.1 Strategic objectives at sub-sector level 22 2.5.2 Related transport policy issues 24 2.6 Conclusions: SWOT analysis transport system 27 3 Accessibility analysis 29 3.1 Introduction 29 3.2 Methodology: Accessibility Problem Index 29 3.3 Transport needs 30 4 Previous support programmes 36 4.1 National public funding for transport infrastructure 36 4.2 EU funding 36 4.3 Other sources of financing 38 5 National Transport Strategy 41 5.1 Introduction 41 5.2 Long term National Transport Strategy and Planning 41 5.3 Operational Programme 2007 - 2013 42 5.3.1 Main objectives of the OP 42 5.3.2 Priorities in OP by sub-sector 43 5.4 Relation of the OP with the National strategy 44 6 Prioritisation of Transport Investments (2007-2013) 46 6.1 Introduction 46 6.2 Community Strategic Guidelines 47 6.3 Additional factors for the prioritisation of transport investments 48 7 Impact assessment of scenarios 52 7.1 Introduction 52 7.2 Methodology 52 7.3 Scenarios 54 7.4 Impact assessment 60 7.7 European effects 69 8 Conclusions on investment priorities 73 8.1 Introduction 73 8.2 Transport investment priorities 2007-2013 73 Annex A TEN-T priorities Annex B Accessibility “red flag” analysis Annex C Selection of priority projects (not for publication) 1 Introduction 1.1 Background The recent enlargement of the EU to 25 Member States clearly creates a new challenge for its Cohesion Policy. Disparity levels within the EU have increased substantially and will further increase with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. This is an explicit point of attention as the Treaty states that, in order to strengthen its economic and social cohesion, the Community shall aim at reducing the disparities between the levels of development of various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions or islands, including rural areas. This aim lies at the core of the Commission’s regional policy. One of the key elements of the cohesion policy of the Commission is the contribution of the development of new transport infrastructure to regional economic development. Extensive spending has taken place in this domain under ERDF, Cohesion Fund and ISPA. One of the prominent initiatives in the European Union in this respect is the development of the Trans-European transport networks (TEN-T). In 2003 the Commission has identified the 30 priority projects of the TEN-T up to 2020. 1 The priority projects include: “the most important infrastructures for international traffic, bearing in mind the general objectives of the cohesion of the continent of Europe, modal balance, interoperability and the reduction of bottlenecks”. For the new programming period 2007-2013 the Commission seeks to strengthen the strategic dimension of cohesion policy to ensure that Community priorities are better integrated into national and regional development programmes. In accordance with the draft Council Regulation (article 23), the Council establishes Community Strategic Guidelines for cohesion policy to “give effect to the priorities of the Community with a view to promote balanced, harmonious and sustainable development” 2. To assess the impact of programmes in relation to Community and national priorities the Commission has indicated that evaluations on a strategic level should be undertaken. The present evaluation should be seen as one of these specific strategic evaluations. The strategic evaluation should feed in the process of determining transport investment priorities and the preparation of the national strategic reference frameworks and 1 Decision 884/2004/EC of 29 April 2004. The total investment of the 30 priority projects amounts to € 225 billion at the 2020 horizon. 2 COM(2004)492 7 operational programmes. As such, it should serve to enhance the quality, effectiveness and consistency of Fund assistance. 1.2 The Strategic Evaluation The strategic evaluation is directed the transport sector. Three specific objectives have been formulated for this strategic evaluation: • To provide an analysis of the situation in selected fields relevant to transport, using structural indicators across Member States, plus Romania and Bulgaria; • To assess the contribution of Structural and Cohesion funds relative to the current and previous programming periods and draw lessons of relevance for the purpose of the study in terms of identification of potential shortcomings in the development of transport priority projects that might have hampered the utilization of those funds or their expected benefits; • To identify and evaluate needs in the selected fields and identify potential investment priorities of structural and cohesion funds for the programming period 2007-2013. 1.3 The Country Report The strategic evaluation results in specific country reports for all 15 countries and a synthesis report. The current report is the Country Report for the Czech Republic. Its main aim is to give a more detailed indication of the strengths and weaknesses of the transport system in the country and to address areas for future intervention. Where relevant this is accompanied by recommendations with respect to the overall transport policy of the country. The country reports feed into the joint programming effort with the Member States for the next period, as will be detailed in the National Strategic Reference Frameworks and the subsequent Operational Programmes. 1.4 Structure of the report The report is structured around three building blocks. • First, a needs assessment is presented based on an analysis of the current transport systems and a modelling analysis which reveals the current (relative) level of accessibility per region. This leads to first conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of the current transport system and related transport investment needs (Part A). • Next, an overview is presented of the transport investment priorities in the recent past (Part B). • Finally, future areas for priority transport investments are identified. This section (Part C) not only builds on the needs assessment in the first part, but also addresses other factors such as the contribution to EU and national policy objectives, the availability of other sources of funding and the administrative capacity of the country. 8 Part A: Needs assessment current situation 9 2 Transport Sector: current situation 2.1 Introduction This chapter describes the current situation of the transport sector and transport policy in the Czech Republic. After a brief introduction on the geographical and economic characteristics of the country, it describes the situation per mode of transport. The analysis of the current situation is summarized in a SWOT table on the main strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The assessment of the transport system is followed by an analysis of the key transport policy issues in the Czech Republic. 2.2 Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in the centre of Europe, strategically located on some of the oldest and most significant land routes of the continent. Bohemia in the west consists of rolling plains, hills and plateaus surrounded by low mountains; Moravia in the east is even more mountainous. Source: CIA, World fact book 10 Basic data Population 10.2 million Total area 78,866 km 2 Population density 129 inh/km 2 Main cities Prague (capital; 1,2 million inhabitants), Brno (400,000 inh), Ostrava (315,000 inh) Source: Eurostat Economic data GDP (2004) 86.8 bn€ GDP per capita, Czech (2004) 8,500 € Government debt as % of GDP (2004) 30.6% Government deficit as % of GDP (2004) -2.9% GDP per capita, EU15 (2004) 25,800 € GDP per capita, EU25 (2004) 22,700 € Source: Eurostat 2.3 Situation per mode of transport 2.3.1 Roads and road transport Infrastructure Currently, there are 546 km of motorways and 55,000 km of state roads available in the Czech Republic, of which 6,120 km are class I roads. These roads are owned by the state and form the core road network that carries almost 91% of the total road transport capacity. This network includes 2,599 km of European international roads. Class II roads, available for transport between larger cities, and class III roads, serving villages and connecting them to higher class roads, are managed by regional offices of the national highway administration. In total there are 14,668 km of class II and 34,143 km of class III roads. Table 2.1 Length of road network in the Czech Republic (1994-2004) in kms 1994 2004 % change Motorways 392 546 39% State roads 55,530 54,953 -1% Local roads 69,270 72,300 4% Source: Eurostat, Czech Statistical Office Despite the expansion of the motorway network in the past decade, it is still underdeveloped.