Today the European Parliament approved Tomasz Poręba’s report on infrastructure in Eastern Europe. It is the first document which deals with this problem in such complex way.

Today the European Parliament approved Tomasz Poręba’s report on infrastructure in Eastern Europe. It is the first document which deals with this problem in such complex way.

In the report the parliament appeals to the European Commission and Member States to strengthen road infrastructure across the eastern EU border, including construction of the Via Carpathia route. “This is a breakthrough in the EU approach towards Via Carpathia. Thanks to this route eastern parts of the EU will gain a chance for accelerated development and new investments. This will support entrepreneurship and enhance security, especially in the context of war in Ukraine”, MEP Poręba said. The report encourages Member States to prepare a financial montage for this investment with the usage of funds e.g. Connecting Europe or EFSI, and to spare no effort to include the whole route in the TENT core network during its next revision. “We should also check the possibility of opening the corridor Ren-Danube to the north through Via Carpathia”, the report states.

The document also refers to the construction of Rail Baltica, pointing to it as a positive example of cooperation between the Member States. The European Parliament also evaluated positively common, international initiatives of the Member States towards a new railway goods route – nr 11 (the so-called Amber Route) – connecting industrial and trade centres in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, with a joint offer on allocation of capacity for international goods trains.

Tomasz Poręba’s report refers also to a macroregional strategy for the Carpathian Region. “EU macroregional strategies such as the Baltic Sea Strategy, Danube Strategy, Adriatic-Ionian Strategy and future Carpathian Strategy guarantee an innovative management framework in terms of challenges in the field of transport which cannot be met by Member States alone”, the MEP said.

The report underlines also the role of Nord Stream showing it as a project hindering investments in the region. “Sustainable port development in the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas must not be impeded by other undersea infrastructure. The European Parliament is concerned that the pursuit of projects such as the North Stream may undermine and block investment in the region, in particular in the Baltic Region, and it insists that any undersea pipelines must respect draught requirements at port entrances”, the report states.