As of January 2014, the European Union has a new transport infrastructure policy that connects the continent between East and West, North and South. This policy aims to close the gaps between Member States’ transport networks, remove bottlenecks that still hamper the smooth functioning of the internal market and overcome technical barriers such as incompatible standards for railway traffic.
Thus the TEN-T Network, Trans European Transport Networks was born, having been conceived as a planned whole of priority networks for promoting and strengthening seamless transport chains for passenger and freight throughout the European Union, while trying to keep up with the latest technological trends.
This policy is vital for Europe to re- boost its economy and generate new work posts. The budget of 24.05 million euros up to 2020, in combination with other EU financing sources and the European Investment Bank, should significantly stimulate investment and guarantee successful implementation of the new infrastructures policy.
Its main aims are:
- Intermodality. Interoperability.
- Coordinated infrastructures development.
- Improvement in cross-frontier sections.
- Elimination of bottlenecks.
The funding instrument created by the European Commission is known as the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) which supports the investment for building new transport infrastructures or for modernising or improving existing ones.
The European Commission Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) was created by the European Commission as the successor of the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T EA) whose mission is to support the Commission by contributing its experience to infrastructures, research and innovation projects in the fields of transport, energy and telecommunications and to promote synergies among these activities in benefit of the growth and of the citizens of the EU.
The TEN Network will enable:
- 94 large ports to be linked with railway lines and roads.
- 38 key airports to be linked by rail to large towns.
- 15,000 kilometres of rail track to be converted into high-speed lines.
- 35 cross-border projects to be carried out.
The Network has been structured into 9 corridors managed by coordinators nominated to lead the development of the same. The Port of Bilbao is a Core Port of Atlantic Corridor connecting ports from the west of the Iberian Peninsula, such as Sines and Lisbon, to ports like Bilbao or Bordeaux with the North Sea.
- IBUK – Intermodal Corridor
- 2011-EU-21009-M
- TEN-T 2011
- More information
- Efficient Operations and Environmental Performance Improvement of the Port of Bilbao
- 2012-ES-91171-P
- TEN-T 2012
- More information
- Future proofing Bilbao – Core port of the Atlantic Corridor
- 2014-ES-TM-0433-M
- CEF 2014
- More information
- Biscay Line – Multiple port Finland – Estonia – Belgium – Spain long distance MoS, relevant to many core network corridors
- 2014-EU-TM-0487-M
- CEF 2014
- More information
