ABSTRACT
In the context of the enlargement process, the negotiating chapter on Transport constituted one of the most complex areas of the negotiations. On the insistence of Germany, in early April 2001, the Commission provided the Council with an "Information Note" on the Transport chapter. The Commission concentrated itself almost exclusively on the road transport. The paper notes effects of enlargement only from the perspective of competition and hardly from the perspective of environmental protection. As had been done in the case of Free Movement of Persons, the Commission resorted also in regard to Transport to the method of confronting the Member States with a number of options on how to proceed further. In the course of 2002, Austria had to recognize, that the result of Laeken was not the end of the story. The Commission put forward, in line with the Laeken conclusions, its proposal for a prolongation of the ecopoints arrangement by up to three more years.
