Trans-European transport network: seaports, inland ports, intermodal terminals and project No 8

The Conciliation Committee confirmed the agreement reached at the trialogue of 16 January 2001 on the joint text of the decision. Under the compromise, all Parliament's main amendments from second reading were accepted. Stricter criteria were agreed, as Parliament had proposed, for allowing port installations to be included in the TENs: a traffic volume of 1.5 million tonnes and 200,000 passengers plus a connection with another trans-European network. In the case of inland ports, Parliament's criterion of 500,000 tonnes was also adopted. The seaports included in the network would now fall into three categories: category A for international seaports, category B for smaller Community seaports and category C for regional ports, mostly situated in the island, peripheral or outermost regions. At the urging of the Parliament delegation, the Elbe-Lübeck Canal and the Twente-Mittelland canal were added to the list of inland waterways. Finally, it was agreed that Project N° 8 in the list of 14 specific TEN projects designated by the 1994 Essen Council should be changed from "Lisbon-Valladolid motorway" to "Multimodal link Portugal/Spain with the rest of Europe". �