The Transport Council discussed the draft regulation on trans-European transport network development in the first reading. Member State ministers for transport approved of a general approach on the draft on 22 March 2012 in Brussels. The proposed regulation, which is of outstanding significance for Hungary as well as the Central European region for both transport policy and economic considerations, sets out the directions of developing the European Union’s transport network up to 2050. Once the issues previously giving reason for concern had been reassuringly settled, the Hungarian delegation headed by Minister of State for Infrastructure Pál Völner voted for the approval of the general approach.

As a starting point for infrastructure development, the draft envisages the introduction of a “dual layer” network comprising a Comprehensive Network providing full coverage of transport in the entire European Union and a core network featuring the highest added value in the European Union. In the summer of 2011, the European Commission took the initiative for the identification of priority core network corridors, however, several Member States were concerned that these might turn into an unwelcome third layer. The compromise solution adopted in the wake of intensive consultations renounced the obligation of establishing incorporated corridor platforms with legal personalities and the Commission’s opportunity to issue executive resolutions, and the roles of European coordinators and the corridor working plan were clarified.

In the wording of the draft, the new core network corridors cover the most important cross-border long-distance flows in the core network. Corridors corridors will run across at least three Member States and, as a rule of thumb, cover no less than three transport modes. Every country must have at least one corridor. According to the current plan, Hungary would be crossed by as many as three core network corridors: the Mediterranean Corridor stretching from Spain to the Ukrainian frontier (Ljubljana–Budapest–Záhony), the corridor connecting Hamburg with Cyprus (through Vienna/Bratislava–Budapest–Oradea), and the Strasbourg–Danube corridor.

The final, albeit unbinding, deadline for the construction of the comprehensive network is set in the proposal at 31 December 2050. Although the implementation deadline of the core network, 31 December 2030, is a mandatory date, exemptions are allowed in consideration of the limits of financial resources or technical scheduling, in a wider scope than originally planned.

In his contribution made during the Council meeting, Pál Völner urged the parties to continue parallel talks on the regulation governing the Connecting Europe Facility to replace the current regulation on the TEN-T guidelines and TEN-T budget. He argued that this was required, among others, by the close relations between the two proposed regulations and the need to provide for consistence between the maps and the core network corridors. The Minister of State highlighted that Hungary was looking forward to the continuation of the Council discussion on the regulations.

(Ministry of National Development , Department of Communication)