Combined goods transport: financial assistance to action pilots PACT

Commissioner Pinheiro said that he could accept only two amendments: Nos 1 and 4 on ‘freight freeways’ which represented a significant step towards the true liberalisation of the rail market. As for Amendments Nos 2, 3, 5 and 6 on the development of communications with the central and eastern European countries, the Commissioner announced that discussions in the Council had shown that agreement could not be reached on this issue. This was why the Commission would try to examine whether other instruments could be used, for example the Phare programme, to develop combined transport beyond the current borders of the European Union. Moreover, he rejected the proposed budget of ECU 43 million as this conflicted with the financial perspectives. Finally, he rejected Amendment No 7 as the synergies with other funding programmes could be guaranteed in other ways, namely through the necessary inter-service consultation within the Commission.