EU COULD RESOLVE TRANSPORT ISSUE

WITH European Union expansion looming and some member states growing increasingly concerned about losing EU financing, the Balearics is backing moves to set up a European Transport Fund. Next week the Fund proposal will be tabled in Brussels and Spanish EU ministers believe that the Fund will serve to guarantee EU funding for transport schemes in western Europe and the Balearics are confident that the Fund could prove to be the vehicle for securing better transport connections for the islands, not only with each other and the mainland, but also the rest of Europe, such as new sea links with France. Spain, and the Balearics, are in danger of being some of the big losers to expansion, hence Spanish ministers are pushing plans for the Fund and a transport development policy drawn up for the next seven years. Spain is also backing a proposal that transport costs in the EU should be fixed which would prove especially beneficial for insular regions such as the Balearics which are so dependent on transport connections. The proposal will state the areas such as the Balearics and the Canaries need to have fixed transport and investment guarantees.