The draft treaty accepts the blueprint laid out by the Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment (TINA), completed in 1999 by a committee of the European Commission, for extension of the Trans-European Network. The affected countries are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus.

“We know from Western Europe that building before thinking can lead to disastrous environmental and social results,” said Beatrice Schell, Director of the European Federation for Transport and Energy (T&E). “Including the TINA projects in the Accession Treaty without carrying any environmental and social impacts assessment opens the door for a reproduction of the West’s unsustainable transport system.”

The Trans-European Network for Transport was first conceived as part of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.

ITDP published a background paper on the affect of the accession on transport in 1996. The text of the draft Accession Treaty is expected to be posted on the web this month at https://www.europarl.eu.int/enlargement/access_draft_en.htm

For more information:

European Federation for Transport and Energy:
https://www.t-e.nu
FOE Europe: https://www.foeeurope.org
CEE Bankwatch: https://www.bankwatch.org
WWF: https://www.panda.org
Birdlife International: https://www.birdlife.net