ABSTRACT

The development of transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructures have a considerable impact on rates of regional economic growth throughout the EU, but, until the early 1990s infrastructural development was undertaken with little reference to the need to reduce regional imbalance in the Community as a whole (CEC, 1991). In response to the Treaty of Maastricht of 1991, the White Paper, Growth, Competitiveness and Employment (CEC, 1993b) proposed that, as a priority, trans-European networks (TENs) should be created not only for transport but also for telecommunications and energy to facilitate multi-mode connections with peripheral regions and to help bring about a truly single market (CEC, 1994c). The White Paper estimated that the development of TENs would require an investment of up to 400 billion ECU over the period 1994-99, but the public sector would be unlikely to contribute more than a quarter of this sum (see Table 10.1), with the private sector being relied upon to provide the remainder.