PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

263
most simple form, it is an unqualified cry for infrastructure expansion. The idea is that
the free flow of goods, and by extension, the competitiveness of the entire European
economy, is hindered by the limited capacity of Europe’s roads, rail lines, waterways and
air routes. In complete disregard for the EU’s Sustainable Development Strategy, which
was published the same year, the new Transport White Paper is content in simply
focusing on curing the symptoms (i.e. bottlenecks) rather than address transport problems
from a more comprehensive, growth-managing perspective. It simply states that the
“transport boom is outstripping economic growth” and that this is “posing a major
problem.” The White Paper’s understanding of the environmentally sustainable policy
developed at the Gothenburg European Council is also limited: it supposedly only
“underlined” the need “to tackle rising levels of congestion and encourage the use of
environmentally friendly modes” (p.50). As for the latter, this appears to be defined as
anything apart from highway funding including multimodal projects, high-speed rail, sea
terminals and airports. Already in the introductory paragraphs of the section, the writers
of the White Paper (i.e. DG TREN) entirely abandon even the slightest nod towards stateof-the-art
transport policy - which would advise better management rather than building
after demand – (see quote at the beginning of the section).
The White paper suggests concentrating a major share of future TEN resources on
“unblocking the major routes” i.e. the existing 14 Essen TEN priority projects as well as
a select number of new “special” projects. There is simply no more talk of equal
distribution of benefits from infrastructures in this paper. The proposed two-stage
revision speaks for itself: