EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Brussels, 26.8.2020

COM(2020) 433 final

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Progress report on implementation of the TEN-T network in 2016-2017

Progress report on the implementation of the TEN-T Network in 2016 and 2017

1.Introduction

Transport is a cornerstone of the European integration process and enables connectivity, convergence and cohesion across the Union. A smart, sustainable and fully interconnected European transport network is a key condition for the completion and good functioning of the European single market and for linking Europe with the world's markets. It thus contributes to the European economic growth, jobs and competitiveness agenda. Moreover, through the development of cleaner modes of transport such as rail and inland waterways and the deployment of alternative fuels in road and maritime transport, it also plays a central role in decarbonisation and thus for the achievement of the objectives of the European Green Deal 1 .

The implementation of the objectives and standards set in the guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013, hereafter TEN-T Regulation 2 ) of 2013 is thus key for a more sustainable, seamless and smarter European transport network. Indeed, the TEN-T guidelines establish a comprehensive and a core network to promote better accessibility of all regions to European and global markets on the one hand, and to provide for a strong focus on infrastructure of strategic importance on the other. Both the core and the comprehensive networks focus on modal integration, interoperability and on the coordinated development of infrastructure, in particular in cross-border sections to bridge missing links and remove bottlenecks. The TEN-T policy also paves the way for the future of the transport system, notably through facilities that stimulate low-emission solutions, new-generation service concepts and other fields of technological innovation. The TEN-T Regulation thereby sets clear deadlines for the completion of the core network (by 2030) and the comprehensive network (by 2050).

The financial instrument, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), set up through Regulation (EU) No 1316/2013 3 , supports the implementation of the TEN-T. Furthermore, substantial investments on the TEN-T are made through EU support from the Cohesion Fund (CF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as well as through the various financial instruments that the European Investment Bank (EIB) provides.

In order to report to European citizens and policy-makers on the effectiveness of the TEN-T policy, intermediate results need to be measured and reported. To this end, Article 49(3) of the TEN-T Regulation requires the Commission to publish, every two years, a progress report on the implementation of the trans-European transport network and present it to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The first report on the reporting years 2014 and 2015 has been adopted in June 2017 4 . The present progress report is thus the second such bi-annual report submitted by the Commission to the other EU institutions.

This second report builds on data from 2016 and 2017 5 . As such, it gives a picture of a situation which, especially in terms of technical compliance, has continued to progress until today. The progress already visible in 2016 and 2017 sends the right signal and underlines the relevance of the TEN-T policy, which is even greater today than when it was carved in 2013, referring amongst others to decarbonisation and the European Green Deal where transport has a very important role to play.

2.Main results

Based on the TENtec Information System, the current state of implementation of TEN-T transport infrastructure at the level of the Core Network Corridors, in terms of compliance with the TEN-T Regulation requirements, reaches between 81% and 100% for most (ten out of 13) of the available indicators, whereas for the remaining three requirements the compliance rates range from 11% to 67%.

Even though one can thus observe an improvement of the compliance rates with the TEN-T standards in 2017 compared to the previous years, it needs to be underlined that these compliance rates do not always fully reflect the reality in terms of quality or operational functionality of the transport network. Indeed, this analysis needs to be put in the context of partly limited technical TEN-T standards compared to the real needs on the ground. These standards might therefore need to be further specified and developed in the upcoming revision of the TEN-T Regulation in order to better capture the actual potentials and limitations of the network.

To give a concrete example: for the railway infrastructure network, compliance is already reached to a large extent in terms of electrification (89%), track gauge (86%), freight line speed (86%) and freight axle load (81%), whereas freight train length (43%) and especially ERTMS deployment (11%) are still lagging behind. However, a line may be fit for 740m train length but does not have enough sidings to ensure full interoperability in practice.

As for roads, the compliance with the criteria of express road/motorway is completely reached (100%). However, as stated above, it is important to keep in mind that the definitions of road categories in the TEN-T Regulation are different from the UNECE/EUROSTAT/ITF ones, hiding the fact that roads can be of insufficient quality here and there. In addition, parts of the network may not have been maintained properly for a certain period, rendering a nominally compliant road not up to operational and safety standards.

The inland waterways are almost fully compliant with respect to RIS implementation (98%) and the CEMT requirement of class IV or higher (97%). Both permissible draught of 2,5m or more and permissible height under bridges of 5,25m or more are already at a high 85%. This however should not hide the fact that where compliance is nominally achieved, there are exemptions on short distances with nonetheless serious impacts on the navigability of a wider section. The situation of the Danube, for example, is a case-in-point.

Finally, 89% of the maritime ports are connected to rail, while the rail connection of airports lags a bit behind at 67%. Once again, the good data sometimes may hide a less positive situation for some of these nodes, especially for ports: in a number of cases, the existing rail connection is not sufficient in capacity or quality terms or simply does not go to the last/first mile.

Next to the state of the technical implementation of the TEN-T, the present report also analyses the efforts of financial investments made on the TEN-T as a whole. In the course of 2016 and 2017 the total investment made on the TEN-T network amount to more than EUR 91 billion. The majority of investments have been made by national resources (73%). Out of the EUR 91 billion, EUR 11.5 billion were financed through EIB loans, EUR 9.8 billion were co-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ERDF and CF) and EUR 3.1 billion by the CEF.

With regard to modal shares, the highest share of total investments (EUR 80 billion) reported by Member States (which includes the EU co-funding part wherever relevant) has been invested on the core network (71%). Similarly, most funds have been attributed to TEN-T railways (including ERTMS) (45%).

3.Scope and Methodology

Article 49(3) of the TEN-T Regulation defines the scope of the Commission's reporting obligation. The Commission should analyse the development of the trans-European transport network on the basis of information on the progress of project implementation transmitted by the Member States, in particular through the interactive geographical and technical system for the trans-European transport network (TENtec). In addition, the Commission is required to make available information on the use of various forms of financial assistance for all transport modes as well as other elements of the core and comprehensive network in each Member State. The report should also outline the Commission's coordination of all forms of financial assistance with a view to supporting a coherent application of the TEN-T Regulation in line with its objectives and priorities.

The first implementation report for the reporting years 2014-2015 has been adopted in June 2017. However, the first report still suffered from a variety of constraints, in terms of data availability, methodological limitations etc. Therefore, the methodology applied for the data research for the present report has been modified. Consequently, the data of the 2014-2015 report cannot in all parts and aspects be directly compared with the analysis of the present report.

The present 2016-2017 report represents an analysis of the implementation of the TEN-T technical parameters. This analysis was performed through the data uploaded in the TENtec information system with a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) defined on the basis of transport infrastructure requirements foreseen in the TEN-T Regulation. The data set for 2016 and 2017 is however limited to the network of the core network corridors. Nevertheless, the data for the core network corridors already gives an important indication of the progress made on the TEN-T since investments (both at EU and at MS level) were in most cases concentrated anyhow on the core network corridors in these first years since the deadline for their completion is 2030 and not 2050 as for the comprehensive network.

In addition, and as mentioned above, the present report reflects the picture in terms of pure compliance of the infrastructure with the TEN-T standards as defined in the TEN-T Regulation. A full compliance might not necessarily guarantee the absence of operational shortcomings or capacity bottlenecks on the ground. Therefore, the European Commission undertakes detailed studies for all nine core network corridors as well as the two horizontal priorities, which analyse the infrastructure in much more detail, i.e. not only in terms of statistical compliance but also based on qualitative assessments in a wider network perspective. Based on that analysis, shortcomings and bottlenecks are reflected in the corresponding Corridor Work Plans as well as the ERTMS and Motorways of the Sea Implementation Plans of the European Coordinators.

Finally, this report presents an indication of national budgets and co-funding and financing from various EU sources for investments made on the TEN-T network infrastructure during the period 2016 and 2017, mainly ERDF, CF, CEF and EIB loans. Whereas the report for 2014 and 2015 did not yet provide any indication of the Member States’ budget invested on TEN-T due to constraints of the analytical and methodological basis, this present report presents for the first time their investments made 6 . These data have been reported directly by Member States through a unified survey exercise.

With regard to EU co-funding and co-financing, the data have been collected from the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

4.Status of TEN-T Implementation: Technical progress made on the TEN-T network in 2016 and 2017

The progress made with regard to the realisation of the TEN-T needs to be benchmarked with these technical standards with the help of key performance indicators. The regular update of the definition of the TEN-T network and the monitoring of the quantitative thresholds to be fulfilled also form an integral part of the progress reporting.

5.Key Performance Indicators in the TENtec information system

To date, TENtec links geographical information and technical parameter data of the TEN-T infrastructure and enables the user to easily compile information and create reports and maps, covering the TEN-T core and comprehensive networks and other thematic data layers. These databases incorporate the data collected from the Member States, corridor studies and other data collection activities to provide the Commission with the means of identifying critical issues such as bottlenecks and issues related to interoperability across borders.

Compared to the previous biennial report, the data quantity, filling rate and quality improved significantly at the level of the Core Network Corridors, allowing presenting detailed compliance maps for the main technical parameters.

6.Technical implementation of the TEN-T network by KPI

Based on the present TENtec Information System, the current state of implementation of TEN-T transport infrastructure in terms of compliance with the TEN-T Regulation requirements at Core Network Corridor level reaches between 81% and 100% for most (10 out of 13) of the available indicators. However, even in cases where the situation has further improved since 2017, a high compliance percentage may hide a less positive situation on the ground because the criteria of the TEN-T Regulation are not sufficiently developed and specified (see section 1.1 above).

Figure 1: Compliance in % for Core Network Corridor (CNC) Network

Source: TENtec

Railways

Rail electrification compliance is already at a high 89% per 2017 data. Certain isolated networks mainly in Ireland, UK, the Baltic States, Spain and Portugal are exempted. 8 Rail track gauge is already compliant at a high 86% per 2017 data. The three notable exceptions are the Iberian gauge still predominant in the Iberian Peninsula, the Irish gauge still the only gauge in Ireland and the broad gauge still the almost only gauge in the Baltic States and in Finland. The situation has improved since the data of 2017 and developments in variable gauge rolling stock have somewhat lowered the importance of this parameter for rail interoperability. This may also need to be addressed in the revision of the TEN-T Regulation. ERTMS deployment (track-side) is at a low 11% per 2017 data. ERTMS deployment is the biggest challenge in terms of the TEN-T parameters with slower progress than anticipated and wished. Plans are in place to address this situation. Where ERTMS is already deployed, it is mainly on parts of the Spanish, French, Belgian, Luxembourg, Dutch, Slovenian and Polish networks. Once again, the situation has improved since the data of 2017, which will be reflected in the next report, and Germany for example has recently announced ambitious investments in ERTMS, while other Member States are also stepping up their efforts quite significantly. For freight line speed, the compliance versus the parameter of 100 or more km/h is already at a high 86% per 2017 data. Outages are mainly in the Baltic States, Poland and Bulgaria. For freight axle load, the compliance versus the parameter of 22.5 or more tonnes per axle is already at a high 81% per 2017 data. Outages are mainly in Romania, Hungary, Poland and Ireland. Finally, for freight train length, the compliance versus the parameter of 740m or longer sidings for trains is at an average 43% per 2017 data. Where the parameter is already met is mainly in France, the Benelux, Germany and Denmark. This however needs to be seen with the already mentioned caveats that the situation continued to improve since 2017 and that there are differences here and there between nominal compliance and the actual operational possibilities. For example, a line may be fit for 740m trains while it does not have enough sidings to turn that possibility into reality.

Roads

For roads, the main indicator calculated is the total number of kilometres compliant with motorways/expressways road types. The results show that compliance is reached at 100%. No complete information on the availability of clean fuels is currently available in TENtec. More detailed information is expected to be presented in the third progress report for the reporting years 2018-2019.

Ports

The compliance of the connection of maritime ports to rail is already at 89% per 2017 data. Outages concern only 14 ports, more than half of them in southern Member States including Italy and Greece. It needs however to be underlined once more that the TEN-T standard only refers to a connection by rail and does not state anything about the quality of such rail connection. Therefore, there might be still limitations, e.g. with regard to the last mile connection of a port, even if formally speaking that port is compliant with the TEN-T standard.

Inland Waterways

In terms of RIS implementation, compliance is already at a very high 98% per 2017 data. The last outages are in France and in Italy. Compliance versus the parameter of CEMT class IV or higher is also at a very high 97% per 2017 data. The main outage is in Croatia on the Sava River. Compliance of a minimum of 5.25 meter of permissible height under bridges is at a high 85% per 2017 data. Outages are mainly in Germany. Compliance of a minimum of 2.5 meter of permissible draught is also at a high 85% per 2017 data. Outages are mainly in Germany, Czech Republic and Croatia.

Airports

As far as airports are concerned, the TEN-T Regulation defines that only the core airports that are marked with an asterisk in Annex 2 of the Regulation (i.e. 38) are falling under the obligation of Article 41(3), i.e. to be connected with the railway and road transport infrastructure of the trans-European transport network by 2050 (except where physical constraints prevent such connection) and to be integrated into the high-speed rail network wherever possible, taking into account potential traffic. In this regard, the compliance rate is at an encouraging 67% per 2017 data. Airports not yet compliant are scattered across the EU, indicating a common need to achieve full airport connectivity.

7.Status of TEN-T Implementation: Progress in financial investments made on the TEN-T network in 2016 and 2017

In the course of 2016 and 2017, the total investment made on the TEN-T network was slightly above EUR 91 billion. Out of the EUR 91 billion, EUR 11.5 billion were invested through EIB loans, EUR 9.8 billion were co-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF, notably European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF)) and EUR 3.1 billion by CEF. When EU co-funding is involved, the co-funding rate ranges between 20% and 85%. The balance and the major part was mobilised by national resources.

It has also to be noted that the overall amount for investments reported by Member States (i.e. EUR 80 billion) only includes investments related to works or other assets and/or mixed projects (but no studies alone) on the core or comprehensive TEN-T network. Under works, all projects which contribute to the objectives of Article 4 of the TEN-T Regulation (i.e. Cohesion, Efficiency, Sustainability, Increasing the benefits for its users) have been reported. In addition, only works that lead to new infrastructure developments or are related to upgrading/rehabilitating existing infrastructure are counted. Current maintenance costs have been excluded. Last but not least, it includes all projects above EUR 1 million that run in 2016 and 2017 regardless of their start date.

Out of the EUR 80 billion of total investments reported by Member States (which includes the EU co-funding part wherever relevant), the majority has been invested on the core network (71%). Similarly, most funds have been attributed to TEN-T railways (including ERTMS) (45%).

Table 1: TEN-T Expenditure 2016+2017 in MEUR

Source: Member States’ survey 2019

CEF (Connecting Europe Facility)

As regards the expenditure from the current CEF for Transport, the grants spent on the TEN-T network in 2016 and 2017 amount to around EUR 3.14 billion for 793 projects which represents a fair increase compared to 2014 and 2015 (EUR 2.1 billion). The major part of CEF funding (around 77%) has been invested in sustainable transport infrastructure projects. Indeed, around 65% has been invested in rail infrastructure projects and around 12% for inland waterways and maritime transport infrastructure.

Table 2: CEF Transport Funding 2016+2017 in MEUR

Source: INEA. Only including projects with beneficiaries from the 27 Member States and UK.

*Digitalisation of Multimodal Transport

ESIF (European Structural and Investment Funds)

EUR 9.85 billion (declared expenditures) have been invested on the TEN-T in 2016 and 2017 by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF), together responsible for around 40% of all EU-supported TEN-T investments (including EIB loans). It needs to be noted that the reported Cohesion Fund share does not take into account the part of Cohesion Fund allocation transferred to support transport projects on the core network under the CEF 9 . It is also noted that cohesion policy support is not allocated on an annual basis but programmed for a seven-year period. The amounts reported for 2016-2017 are expenditure incurred by the beneficiaries, certified and declared to the Commission during the reporting period.

Table 3: ERDF+CF (declared expenditure) 2016+2017 in MEUR

Source: DG REGIO, https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/d/3kkx-ekfq

*Expenditure incurred by the beneficiaries, certified and declared to the Commission. 
Figures are cumulative. 

EIB (European Investment Bank)

In 2016 and 2017, the EIB financed investments in the transport infrastructure sector for EUR 13 billion for 74 transport operations altogether (TEN-T and non-TEN-T, excluding mobile assets), and mobilizing EUR 51 billion of investment. The major part of these transport infrastructure investments (89%) has been made on TEN-T, representing 51 operations with EIB loans of a EUR 11.5 billion signed in 2016 and 2017.

Out of these 74 transport operations financed in 2016-2017, 18 operations were signed under EFSI. This represents an EIB loan volume, backed by EFSI guarantees, of around EUR 2.5 billion, leveraging total investments of EUR 10.2 billion in the transport sector (infrastructure, excluding mobile assets). In the same period, 5 operations were signed under the CEF Debt Instrument. This corresponds to an EIB loan volume, backed by the CEF Debt Instrument, of around EUR 338 million, leveraging total investments of EUR 1.9 billion for TEN-T roads, ports and green vessels. 10

Table 4: TEN-T expenditure per funding/financing source by Member State in 2016+2017 in MEUR

8.Conclusion

Significant progress has been made in the development of the TEN-T network in the course of the years 2016 and 2017, both with regard to the technical compliance as well as the financial investments made on the network.

Indeed, in terms of compliance with the TEN-T Regulation requirements, the network of the Core Network Corridors reaches between 81% and 100% for most (ten out of 13) of the available indicators. One must however keep in mind that the current definition of the compliance parameters is sometimes not developed and specified enough to properly account for the actual operational possibilities of the network. This being said, the rather good compliance data goes hand in hand with the fact that the highest share of total investments (EUR 80 billion) reported by Member States (which includes the EU co-funding part wherever relevant) has been invested on the core network (71%). Similarly, most funds have been attributed to TEN-T railways (including ERTMS) (45%) in order to catch up with the compliance gaps.

Besides, it also showed evident that the major challenges of the TEN-T infrastructure network can only be met by a sound mix of funding and financial instruments. The reporting years 2016 and 2017 were successful in that regard, by having shown an increased funding on the side of the CEF in particular and a wide-spread use of the various other means (ERDF, CF, EIB loans in particular).

Further progress is undoubtedly to be expected during the years to come as the deadline of 2030 and 2050 approaches and the maturity of the project pipeline increases. To this aim, the European Coordinators of the TEN-T do their utmost efforts in ensuring a sound, mature and visible TEN-T project pipeline which counts more than 2.500 project investments already today. Similarly, the Commission together with the co-legislators work on various initiatives to streamline permitting and procurement procedures in order to speed up the progress of TEN-T implementation.

The Commission is currently reviewing the TEN-T Regulation with a view to increasing the efficiency of the network in particular through better modal integration and digitalisation, enabling clean transport and strengthening quality and resilience of infrastructure. The development and better specification of the technical requirements of the network is also on the agenda of this review process. A possible proposal for its revision would follow by 2021.

9.Annexes

-Compliance Map: Railways – Electrification – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Railways – Track Gauge (1435mm) – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Railways (freight & mixed lines) – Line Speed – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Railways – ERTMS Deployment (track side) – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Railways (freight & mixed lines) – Max. axle load – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Railways (freight & mixed lines) – Max. train length – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Inland Waterways – CEMT class – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Inland Waterways – Permissible draught – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Inland Waterways – Permissible height under bridges – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Inland Waterways – RIS Implementation – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Airports – Connection to rail – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Ports – Connection to rail – Status 2017

-Compliance Map: Roads – Express Roads / Motorways - Status 2017

(1)

COM(2019) 640 final

(2)

 Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network and repealing Decision No 661/2010/EU, (OJ L 348, 20.12.2013, p.1)

(3)

Regulation (EU) No 1316/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing the Connecting Europe Facility, amending Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 680/2007 and (EC) No 67/2010, (OJ L 348, 20.12.2013, p. 129).

(4)

 COM(2017) 327 final

(5)

Full data for 2017 were only available mid-2019

(6)

Only works projects either EU co-funded or not and over one MEUR have been reported.

(7)

The planning methodology for the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), SWD(2013) 542 final.

(8)

Exemption from certain requirements for isolated networks according to Article (39)(2)(a), (i) to (iii), of Regulation 1315/2013.

(9)

Part of the Cohesion Fund allocation (EUR 11 305 500 000) was transferred to finance transport projects on the transport core network or transport projects relating to horizontal priorities in the Member States eligible for financing from the Cohesion Fund under the CEF.

(10)

Data source: EIB operational reporting to the European Commission

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Brussels, 26.8.2020

COM(2020) 433 final

ANNEX

to the

Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions

Progress report on the implementation of the TEN-T Network in 2016-2017