Trans-European transport network: Community guidelines

Following the recommendations of the Essen European Council and the demands of the European Parliament, the Commission has amended its proposal as follows: - Annex I to the initial proposal has been amended in order to take account of enlargement to Austria, Finland and Sweden; - an additional provision has been added to Article 10 on the railway network in order to take account of new high-speed technologies (e.g. subject to adequate conditions of interoperability of systems such as TRANSRAPID); - an Annex III containing a list of projects which should start up in the next five years has been inserted. The list of projects is indicative as regards investments in infrastructure over the first five of the next fifteen years when the trans-European transport network is established, as defined in the guidelines. The list includes: - the 14 projects which the Essen European Council defined as priority projects ready for implementation (Berlin-Munich-Verone TGV; Paris-Brussels-Cologne-Amsterdam-London TGV; TGV South; Paris-East-South Germany TGV; Betuwe line; Lyon-Torino-Milan-Venice-Trieste TGV; Patras-Thessalonica motorway; Lisbon-Valladolid motorway; Cork-Dublin-Belfast-Larne-Stranraer rail link; Malpensa Airport; rail/road link between Denmark and Sweden; Nordic triangle; Ireland-United Kingdom -Benelux road link; west coast main line); - 21 other important projects which complement the above 14 projects with a view to structured development of the trans-European transport network; - 5 pilot projects which will allow logistics to be introduced into the transport network.�