dc.description.abstract | Since the 1980s, numerous policies regarding the development of transport infrastructure have been initiated, mainly by the European Union (EU) member states,
under the umbrella of the TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network) infrastructure
development policy in order to ensure economic, social and territorial cohesion, as
well as improve accessibility across Europe. The first initiative was the PEC (PanEuropean Corridors and Areas), developed during two Ministerial Conferences – in
Crete (1994) and in Helsinki (1997), with the aim of connecting the EU-15 with the
then neighbouring countries. At the same time, the TINA (Transport Infrastructure
Needs Assessment) process started in 1995 focused on strengthening the linkages
within the eastern part of Europe (EC, 2011a; Commission of the European Communities, 2005). The second pan-European, i.e. TEN-T initiative was established in 2005
comprising thirty EU priority transnational axes and projects that should support
the integration of the networks of the new member states (Commission of the European Communities, 2005). Its last revision from 2011 is, in fact, a further simplification of the TEN-T network, known as the TEN-T Core Network Corridors (EC, 2011b),
consisting of eleven axes of European importance (Figure 1, opposite page). Briefly
put, TEN-T policy is aimed at: 1) eliminating bottlenecks and building missing links,
2) interconnecting networks, in terms of horizontal cohesion between different
national, regional and local networks, and 3) stimulating the development of intermodal (i.e. considering various means of transport through the transport cycle) and
interoperable networks, i.e. the networks based on operation and technical integration and forms of coordination that enable the functioning of interconnectivity and
intermodality at different spatial levels by the various actors (Dühr, Colomb & Nadin,
2010: 300)...... | en |