If the expansion of the EU transport network into the region is to bring real benefits, there must be a balance between the desire for economic growth and the need for sustainable development By Pavel Antonov Plans to extend roads, railways and waterways to integrate Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) into the European Union's transportation network have inspired visions of quick economic gains and left environmentalists worried that their concerns might get paved over. European Union planners have designed 10 "multi-modal" transport corridors to connect the region with the Trans-European Networks (TENs) that are already developed in the West. The corridors facilitate road, rail or water transport, and often a mixture of these modes of transport are developed at the same time. Construction of the corridors will have positive impacts on CEE's economies in transition. But without vigilance from the countries of the region, this development can occur in a way that is harmful to the environment and, according to one study, harmful to the economies of certain areas. Unfortunately, instead of proceeding with caution, there is an atmosphere of competition among the countries of the region, all of whom are eager to get the biggest economic benefits out of the new corridors. There is also competition among railways and road builders as to which mode of transport is preferable. The TEN concept was initially proposed for Western Europe in 1992 and officially agreed upon in 1996. The decision to extend the network to the countries of CEE was discussed during the pan-European Conference of Transport Ministers in Crete (1994) and in Helsinki (1997). The EU sees the ten pan-European corridors as a powerful tool for the economic integration of the CEE region to the West, and the governments of this region see them as a way to develop infrastructure and enhance commerce. While the Sixth Environmental Action Programme of the European Commission warns of possible negative impacts from the corridors, other officials may see protection of the environment as an issue of secondary importance. A press release from a May 29-30 meeting of the European Conference of the Ministers of Transport (ECMT) lists the need to protect the environment as being related to one of the "hurdles" that must be overcome in the implementation of transport policies in CEE. This attitude seems to be mirrored by many national transport officials, who are eager for new road construction. Environmentalists fight back But environmentalists can make themselves heard. In 1998, a dozen Bulgarian environmental non-governmental organisations formed a coalition to protect biodiversity in the Kresna Gorge from plans to build a highway from Sofia to Thessaloniki for pan-European corridor No. 4. In a letter to the EU's delegation in Sofia and national institutions, the NGOs claimed that, in their rush to build the motorway before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the Bulgarian authorities had not conducted an adequate environmental impact assessment. More than two years later, the Bulgarian government finally announced that three alternative proposals for the disputed section of the road will be required from the Italian SPEA SpA, which won the international tender to reconstruct the motorway. This exemplary case, celebrated as a success story by Bulgaria's civil environmental movement, illustrates the challenges that the transport infrastructure projects pose to the region. In Albania and FYR Macedonia, similar issues have been raised over road, pipeline and railway infrastructure developments, as well as water supply projects that require damming, according to Dr. Rob Pickard from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK. At a seminar of the European Conference of Ministers for Regional Planning (CEMAT) in Thessaloniki, June 25-26, 2001, Pickard justified the need of balance between conservation and development priorities in regional planning: "Conservation can, itself, play a very key role in promoting economic prosperity and social well-being by safeguarding areas of recognised and potential attractiveness for those living and working in the area, and for tourists." Not only is it important to remember that preserving the environment can have economic value, it should also be noted that transportation development is not a guarantee of prosperity. Dr. Jorg Schonharting of Essen University in Germany did case studies of six "mega-corridors" in Western Europe, and demonstrated that the regional impacts of the TEN are not necessarily positive. "If we look at the economic growth, the building of the TEN corridors itself is not the only measurement," according to Schonharting. He claims that a transport corridor can be very beneficial for one region, and at the same time cause population decrease, emigration of educated people, or environmental degradation in a neighbouring region. Corridors considered panacea Despite this study, many CEE countries seem to consider TEN corridors as a panacea for economic development, and competition over the corridors has created a sort of national infrastructure chauvinism. Although the corridors are designed to facilitate European integration, their realisation often causes tension among countries in the region, who all vie for EU infrastructure funding and increased commercial traffic. The development of Romania's section of corridor No. 4, from Arad through Bucharest and Constanta, was seen by Bulgaria as a threat to their strategic interests. After five years of wrangling, Romania finally agreed to the construction of a second bridge over the Danube at Calafat, which facilitates traffic to Bulgaria. In a similar competition, Greece, an EU member state, actively promotes its project "Via Egnatea" as being a preferable option to TEN corridor No. 8, which is planned to link the Black Sea to the Adriatic via Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia and Albania. This kind of national infrastructure chauvinism tends to drown out arguments in favour of nature protection and sustainability. Even the Bulgarian activists who prevented environmentally unsound road construction in Kresna, were accused by the mainstream media of serving the interests of neighbouring countries' competing projects. In his address to a Prague meeting of the ECMT in May 2000, Czech President Vaclav Havel called for sustainable transport, saying, "It is increasingly important to protect landscapes, the environment and our cities from the adverse impacts of transport." Reasonable development of the pan-European corridors in CEE must involve this kind of attention to sustainability.

The map of the TEN transport corridors in CEE New Routes: Congested roads in Hungary might be augmented by new highways.