Last-ditch effort in TENs talks

Date: 20/06/1996

By Rory Watson

NEGOTIATIONS crucial to the success of the EU's high-profile Trans-European Networks will go down to the wire in Luxembourg next week.

After ten hours of tense talks in Brussels between MEPs and member states ended in deadlock in the early hours of this morning (13 June), the two sides will now make a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement on Monday.

At stake is more than 1.5 billion ecu of EU funding for a series of flagship projects such as the high-speed rail link between London, Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam and the Brenner tunnel through the Alps.

Negotiators will have just 48 hours to end the stalemate over the European Parliament's demands for tighter environmental assessments and for a detailed list of priority projects when they meet again. If they fail to agree the guidlines by the 19 June deadline, EU funding of 280 million ecu this year and a further 1.278 billion ecu for future years will remain blocked.