On 10 May 2021, the TRAN Committee of the European Parliament invited the European Coordinators in charge of the TEN-T Core Network Corridors to discuss the progress and challenges in the implementation of the Mediterranean, Orient/East-Med, and Rhine-Alpine corridors: Iveta Radičová – Mediterranean corridor; Mathieu Grosch – Orient/East-Med corridor; Pawel Wojciechowski – Rhine-Alpine corridor. The exchange of views was webstreamed.
The Coordinators outlined the developments and challenging issues and commented on the questions raised.
Regarding the Suez Canal problem and the Mediterranean Corridor, they try to provide support to ports and to improve hinterland connections. They believe that the work plan could be more binding for the Member States, and, as such, the Commission could strengthen the binding character of the TEN-T regulation. The TEN-T revision could make the instruments more effective, bring more pressure on Member States, stress the corridor dimension, multimodality, the environmental impact and ensure that there are technical and operational criteria across the different countries. Regarding governance, though coordinators already work together and exchange good practices, this is not always aligned with other stakeholders, including Member States. More visibility at the level of regions and governments would be also welcome.
For more information on the developments at each Corridor, please see here.