PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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projects is in the region of ECU 25 to 30 billion. In the EU budget, ECU 1.8 billion
was made available for the years 1995 to 1999, including 75% for the priority projects.
(European Parliament 1999:6)
In sum, the “Missing-links” storyline is the one that most honestly reveals the key
rationale behind EU transport infrastructure investments, namely to improve conditions
for business and trade between the most powerful, most competitive urban
agglomerations in Europe.
6.3.6 Bottlenecks
Unless infrastructure is interconnected and free of bottlenecks, to allow the physical
movement of goods and persons, the internal market and the territorial cohesion of the
Union will not be fully realized.
EU White Paper “European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide.” 2001:50
The bottleneck storyline is not a new one in EU transport policy, but it has
recently reappeared with vigor in the Commission’s new White Paper on the Common
Transport Policy (Commission of the European Communities 2001f). In the section on
infrastructure policy, the almost exclusive focus on the issue of bottlenecks in this
document is stunning. In some ways, it is a variation of the “Missing Links” storyline.
And again, the industry is ahead of the Commission in terms of setting the stage for the
ensuing rhetoric. In the mid- to late-1990s, the so-called European Centre for
Infrastructural Studies (ECIS) in Rotterdam published two major studies on the ”State of
European Infrastructure” (1996) and on “Bottlenecks in the European Transport
Networks” (1999).
The Bottlenecks-storyline aims at creating a strong sense of urgency. Its major
implication is that there are congested infrastructures that need to be “unblocked”. In its