Editorial by Markus Liechti
T&E was not alone in being concerned at the news that Jacques Barrot had set up a “high level group” to look for priority transport TENs projects with the EU’s new neighbouring states.
The European Advantage: How NGOs can benefit from recent European Legislation in their work for Sustainable Transport Infrastructure. Organised by CEE Bankwatch, T&E, BUND, Friends of the Earth Europe, Hnuti DUHA (Friends of the Earth Czech Republic). 23-24 November 2005, Prague.
The lack of a coherent transport policy to shift goods traffic from road to rail has been criticised following the French tribunal investigating the 1999 fire in the Mont Blanc road tunnel in which 39 people died.
The EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot has called for an “urgent rebalancing of road and rail” after the latest fire in a road tunnel through the Alps.
The leading NGO monitoring the activities of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says the bank is ignoring environmental requirements in its charter and is continuing to invest in unsustainable transport projects in Central and Eastern Europe.
T&E has said the Commission is risking large sums of money being spent on transport projects that have not been properly thought through.