PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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most of the more problematic choices, such as the decision over the eastern section of the
M0 ring road or for civil aviation projects, have so far been postponed, so that it would be
premature to pass judgment on the portfolio as it stood in late 2001.
8.6 Concluding Remarks on the EU’s ISPA Transport Program
It is still too early to present any strong conclusions on the EU’s new ISPA
program. But based on ISPA program directives and requirements, as well as on the
record of lending and grant making activity until December 2001, the following remarks
can be offered:
The ISPA National Strategies played and still play very different roles in the two
case study countries in terms of re-organizing national transport policies. Disputes over
the content of these strategies once again demonstrate the conflicted and contested nature
of EU transport policy making, as well as its particular problems in the enlargement
countries. The different documents were clearly written under very different political
circumstances at the national level. It is interesting to note that Polish official(s)
obviously took the writing of the ISPA national strategy document as a welcome
opportunity to force their government to develop a medium to long-term, mode-specific
list of priorities in the transport sector and to commit to a multi-year strategy (thereby
making Polish transport policy more “sustainable” at least in the sense that it might
become more future-oriented, internally consistent and better integrated across sectors).
In Hungary, by contrast, the writing of the strategy was seen mostly as a necessary
document to receive supplementary financial aid from Brussels. When it became clear
that the grave violations of international procurement rules in the national expressway