The European Commission has decided to send reasoned opinions to Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland,Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia calling these member states to transpose the TEN-T Directive into national laws streamlining measures for advancing the realisation of the trans-European transport network.
The Directive aims at smoother completion of key TEN-T core network projects by making permit-granting and public procurement procedures clearer. The TEN-T Directive covers cross-border and missing links on the core TEN-T corridors, and corridor projects exceeding EUR 300 million.
The deadline to transpose the Directive into national law was 10 August 2023. The Commission sent letters of formal notice to the six member states in September 2023 as they failed to notify national transposing laws. Having examined the replies from the member states concerned, the Commission considers that these member states have still not transposed the directive.
The six countries concerned now have two months to take the necessary measures and notify the Commission. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
According to the directive, for the first time by 10 February 2027, and at regular intervals thereafter, the Commission shall report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of this Directive and on its results. The report shall be based on information to be provided by Member States every two years and for the first time by 10 August 2026, concerning the number of permit-granting procedures falling within the scope of the directive, the average length of the permit-granting procedures, the number of permit-granting procedures exceeding the time-limit and the establishment of any joint authority during the reporting period.
On rail infrastructure, the directive pre-identified around 64 cross-border links and missing links in the core network corridors including Stuttgart – Ulm, Koralm railway line and tunnel and Semmering base tunnel, Lyon – Torino base tunnel, Koper – Divača, Dresden – Praha as well as Fehmarn belt fixed link, among other.
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