PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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The question of priorities is still open. The maturity of a project is an essential factor
for its selection for European funding. Other main parameters that can influence the
priority of a project are whether the projects contributes towards
?? increase of capacity – elimination of bottlenecks;
?? development of links toward not well-developed areas;
?? development of links to the TENs;
?? better functioning of the network – increase of its attractiveness;
?? completion of an already started programme;
?? lower operating costs;
?? etc.
This list is particularly interesting in light of future emerging justifications for
individual projects under ISPA. The argument that projects should receive funding
simply because they have already been started is certainly curious. Moreover, embedded
in an overall modernization discourse emphasizing “missing links” and “bottlenecks” we
suddenly also find elements of a “infrastructure-for-cohesion” discourse, namely via the
reference of “links towards not well-developed areas.” In essence, this formulation
leaves the door open for cohesion-type rural infrastructure projects that could not
otherwise be justified via economic or financial assessment criteria. This is a particularly
sensitive issue in the case of Hungary’s disputed M3 highway crosses rural territory in
Eastern Hungary and ends at the Ukrainian border (also see Hook 1998a).
A further remark about “bottlenecks” is in order as well. Although discourses
related to “bottlenecks” were clearly the types of rhetorical tropes which the authors of
the report welcomed to further highlight the urgency of their cause, it seems that it was
very clear to everyone involved that the related maps in Annex IX of the report indicating
“TINA Road and Rail Bottlenecks” for the year 2005, 2010 and 2015 would never hold
up as accurate predictions of future CEE infrastructure capacity deficiencies. In any case,
the TINA report itself makes little to no reference to these maps, thus already implicitly