ABSTRACT
Transport infrastructure is an important instrument in pursuing the policy of strengthening economic and social cohesion and promoting sustainable mobility set up by the EC. The EC Commissions’ early attempts to promote a European approach to investment in transport infrastructure, increase accessibility and promote a more balanced economic development met with only limited success. The development of trans-European networks for different modes is a critical part of the EC policy on transport infrastructure. At the national level there are considerable new requirements and political appeal for transport infrastructure to tackle the growing menace of congestion. Attracting private capital and making users pay their full share of infrastructure and external costs appear to be the only ways of maintaining a satisfactory standard of transport infrastructure. A satisfactory standard of transport infrastructure can be maintained by an appropriate fiscal policy for the sector allowing costs (both internal and external) to be properly allocated.
