Orient/East-Med Corridor: Challenges and demands for the rail network policies

As rail represents an efficient and sustainable transport system, the Trans-European railway network has become subject to special attention from European transport policy. The political objectives are to shift 30 % of freight to rail by 2030, 50 % by 2050, and to reduce passenger trips on road and in the air. These make it necessary to develop the defined TEN-T core network rail corridors as a priority, which means eliminating bottlenecks along the corridors and increasing capacities and operation quality. This concerns the Orient/East-Med (OEM) Core Network Corridor as well. Considerable parts of the infrastructure of the railway network along the OEM Corridor is not compliant with some of the technical thresholds set out by EU-Regulation 1315/2013. In the meanwhile the EU and the affected states have established activities for extending the core network corridors to the Western Balkans states. In 2015, the European Commission adopted a Joint Statement of the Prime Ministers of six Western Balkans states (WB6), which contains a list of specified Core Network links and Priority Projects for the extension of the TEN-T network to the Western Balkans. During additional common summits of the EU and the WB6, an indicative extension network has been more and more concretized. To date the process has led to the establishment of a common EU-Western Balkans Transport Community signed in 2017, which aims to help WB6 countries integrate into the EU by creating closer transport ties or connections. A continuing aspect is the importance of the OEM Corridor for the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative as a hinterland connection between the sea port of Piraeus (GR) and the central and eastern European countries.