UNITED NATIONS E Economic and Social Distr. Council GENERAL TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 7 June 2002 ENGLISH ONLY ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE INLAND TRANSPORT COMMITTEE Working Party on Transport Trends and Economics (Fifteenth session, 2- 4 September 2002, agenda item 6) STATUS OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CORRIDORS AND TRANSPORT AREAS DEVELOPMENTS AND ACTIVITIES IN 2000 AND 2001 FINAL REPORT Transmitted by TINA and the European Commission (EU) Note: The report is reproduced as received from TINA and the European Commission (EU). * * * TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 page 2 EUROPEAN COMMISSION TRANSPORT STRATEGIES DG ENERGY & TRANSPORT STATUS OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CORRIDORS AND TRANSPORT AREAS DEVELOPMENTS AND ACTIVITIES IN 2000 AND 2001 FINAL REPORT Vienna, April 2002 TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 page 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 EXTENDING THE EUROPEAN UNION TO CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 7 THE PAN-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CORRIDORS AND TRANSPORT AREAS 7 CO-ORDINATION OFFICE FOR THE RAILWAY CORRIDORS IV AND X AND CORRIDOR VII - DANUBE 9 FINANCING INSTRUMENTS provided by the European Commission for projects along the Corridors 10 FINANCIAL AID FROM THE TEN-T BUDGET FOR PROJECTS WITHIN THE EU MEMBER STATES 10 FINANCIAL AID FROM REGIONAL FUNDS 10 FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS TO ASSIST THE CANDIDATE COUNTRIES IN THE PREPARATION FOR ACCESSION 12 TACIS PROGRAMME FOR PROJECTS WITHIN THE NEW INDEPENDENT STATES (NIS) 13 INTERNATIONAL FINANCING INSTITUTIONS 14 TRADE AND TRAFFIC FLOWS 17 EU AND ACCESSION COUNTRIES 17 TRAFFIC FLOWS 20 STATUS OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CORRIDORS 25 CORRIDOR I 25 ALIGNMENT: 25 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 25 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF CORRIDOR I: 27 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 28 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 29 CORRIDOR II 36 ALIGNMENT: 36 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 36 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF THE CORRIDOR II: 39 TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 page 4 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 40 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 41 CORRIDOR III 44 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 44 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF CORRIDOR III: 45 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 45 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 46 CORRIDOR IV 49 ALIGNMENT: 49 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 49 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF THE CORRIDOR IV: 50 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 51 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 52 CORRIDOR V 70 ALIGNMENT: 70 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 70 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF CORRIDOR V: 71 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 72 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 73 CORRIDOR VI 76 ALIGNMENT: 76 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 76 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF CORRIDOR VI: 77 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 78 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 79 CORRIDOR VII 82 ALIGNMENT: 82 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 82 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF THE CORRIDOR VII: 85 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 86 TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 page 5 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 86 CORRIDOR VIII 89 ALIGNMENT: 89 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 89 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF THE CORRIDOR VIII: 90 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 91 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 92 CORRIDOR IX 93 ALIGNMENT: 93 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 93 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF THE CORRIDOR IX: 94 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 95 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 96 CORRIDOR X 110 ALIGNMENT: 110 GENERAL DEVELOPMENT: 110 TECHNICAL FEATURES OF CORRIDOR X: 111 COST ESTIMATIONS PER COUNTRY: 112 DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR 114 STATUS OF THE PAN-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT AREAS 120 BARENTS-EURO ARCTIC TRANSPORT AREA 120 BLACK SEA TRANSPORT AREA 122 ADRIATIC-IONIAN SEAS TRANSPORT AREA 125 MEDITERRANEAN TRANSPORT AREA 125 LIST OF CONTACTS 126 CORRIDOR MAPS 130 TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 page 6 INTRODUCTION At the beginning of the 21st century, European transport systems are confronted with a serious modal imbalance, which has favoured the development of the most polluting and congested modes of transport. This requires a change of strategy in the Common Transport Policy, which puts users at the centre of the system, guaranteeing their right to efficient, safe, affordable, and environment-friendly transport. As global freight transport volumes have increased, the external costs of traffic congestion, accidents, air pollution and noise have become more apparent, not only as an issue of concern for the quality of life, but also with respect to their potential for disrupting economic growth and mobility. As a result, one of the major challenges facing the transportation industry is the need to introduce a more efficient, modally integrated service, which utilizes spare capacity in other modes. During the 1990s, Europe began to suffer from congestion in certain areas and on certain routes. The problem is now beginning to threaten economic competitiveness. Traffic jams cost Europe dear in terms of productivity. Bottlenecks and missing links in the infrastructure fabric; lack of interoperability between modes and systems. Because of congestion, there is a serious risk that Europe will lose economic competitiveness. Recent studies on the subject showed that the external costs of road traffic congestion alone amount to 0.5% of Community GDP. Traffic forecasts for the next ten years show that, if nothing is done road congestion and the costs attributable to it will increase significantly by 2010. The transport industry occupies an important position in the Community, accounting for 7 % of its GDP, 7 % of total employment, 40 % of Member States' investment and 30 % of Community energy consumption. Demand, particularly in intra-Community traffic, has grown more or less constantly for the last 20 years, by 2.3 % a year for goods and 3.1 % for passengers. The European Commission adopted the White Paper “European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to decide” in which users’ needs are placed at the heart of the strategy. One of the first measures proposed is to shift the balance between modes of transport by 2010 by revitalizing the railways, promoting maritime and inland waterway transport and linking up the different modes of transport. This approach is also the same as the approach adopted in the Commission's contribution to the Gothenburg European Council which called for a shift of balance between the modes by way of an investment policy in infrastructure geared to the railways, inland waterways, short sea shipping and intermodal operations (COM (2001) 264 final). To set the scene for a sustainable transport policy that will allow the progress of recent years to continue but with a reduced level of nuisances - emissions, noise etc. The question is what sort of growth can be absorbed without the roads resulting so congested that delays become the norm and operating costs increase considerable. If we do not intervene, it is likely that the demand for road haulage services would increase by 50% between 1998 and 2010. Therefore it is time to invest more intelligently, to seek transport capacity beyond the road and to set up priorities where weaknesses are in the transport system: in sorting out bottlenecks, in supporting greater use of modes which are today under-utilised. TRANS/WP.5/2002/4 page 7 EXTENDING THE EUROPEAN UNION TO CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE Enlargement is an historic opportunity for further European integration. It embraces thirteen candidate countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Negotiations opened in 1998 with six candidate countries and in 2000 with further six ones. The energy and transport chapters were opened for negotiations in November 1999. With Turkey an analytical examination of the acquis’ is being developed. In the transport sector the candidate countries for accession are in the process of establishing and implementing programme of approximation to the EU transport acquis. The acquis supporting the Common Transport Policy represents about 10% of the total EU acquis and more legislation is in the pipeline. Apart from the development and upgrading of the transport infrastructure networks, which upon accession will form part of the enlarged Trans-European transport network, the transport issues which need to be addressed as a matter of priority are as follows: • in road transport, issues relating to the technology, safety and environment legislation, as well as market access, fiscal matters and social legislation; • in rail transport, the integration of services between EU and CEEC railway companies, as well as improving the latter's organisation and financial situation to operate in market conditions; • in inland waterway transport, issues concerning fleet capacity; • in air transport, issues relating to market access and safety and infrastructure organisation; and • in maritime transport, the enforcement of the maritime safety acquis. The Commission evaluates annually the progress made in candidate countries in its “Regular Reports on countries’ progress towards accession”. The transport chapter has been closed provisionally for Cyprus and Malta, for all other candidate countries for accession the transport chapter is still under negotiation. THE PAN-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CORRIDORS AND TRANSPORT AREAS The Pan-European Transport Network has been developed along with three Pan-European Transport conferences. The set out of the first Pan-European Transport conference in Prague in 1991 was an appropriate concept for transport infrastructure, which became the corridor concept. At the second Pan-European Transport conference in Crete in 1994, the countries of Western, Central and Eastern Europe identified nine long-distance transport corridors as priorities for infrastructure development. At the third Pan-European Transport conference in Helsinki in June 1997 a tenth corridor and the Pan-European Transport Areas for maritime basins were added. These multi-modal Corridors, so called Helsinki Corridors, have a total length of about 48,000 km, of which 25,000 km are rail network and 23,000 km are road network. Airports, sea- and river ports and major terminals serve as nodes between the modes along these long distance interconnections between the Central and Eastern European countries. The concept of a Pan-European Transport Infrastructure Investment Partnership promotes the establishment of all the necessary components for a future Pan-European Transport Network on the territory of the European Union, in the candidate countries for accession, the New Independent States (NIS) and beyond.