During a bilateral meeting held in Tallinn, Estonia, between Joe Mizzi, Minister for Transport and Infrastructure and Mr Pat Cox, ex-President of the European Parliament and Ten-T coordinator, Malta raised its case on the need of improving traffic management and addressing traffic bottlenecks, most particularly at the Addolorata junction area.

The Minister for Tansport, who was accompanied by Mr James Piscopo, Transport Malta Chairman and Mr Jonathan Cardona, Chief of Staff at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, highlighted the importance of the allocation of specific EU funds for this project.

Emphasising the fact that the traffic bottleneck problem in this particular area is spreading from the traditional peak hours into other hours of the day, Minister Mizzi re-iterated the significant need to address this situation.

He said that recent experience has shown us that traffic incidents on Malta’s TEN-T core network have the potential of causing nationwide disruption to transport services, resulting in passengers missing flights and freight operators missing vital lifeline connecting ferry services to the rest of Europe. All this comes at a great cost to society, tourism and the economy.

During this meeting, Malta also made the case for stronger investment in the motorways of the seas connection between Italy and Malta and the need to keep regular, stable connections.

At the end of this meeting, the Minister invited Mr Pat Cox to visit Malta.

During the short stay in Tallinn, Minister Mizzi participated in the TEN-T Days 2013 Ministerial conference, chaired by the Vice-President of the EU Commission, Siim Kallas.

Whilst expressing Malta’s full commitment towards developing and finalising its core TEN-T network before the year 2030, Minister Mizzi stated that national planning is underway to develop and implement project pipelines that are aimed at alleviating traffic congestion.

During this conference, Ministers, Members of European Parliament and key stakeholders discussed the future development of the trans-European transport network and implementation of the new trans-European network guidelines, with a special focus on financing, innovation and implementation tools.

“Malta, being a small island state on the southernmost periphery of Europe, depends heavily on the strength of its transport connections, both internally and externally,” Minister Mizzi said. “We therefore welcome the agreement on the guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, as the development of the TEN-T core network is fundamentally an important step forward in the facilitation the seamless transport of passengers and goods across Europe and, through external air, sea, road, rail and inland waterway gateway nodes to the rest of the world.”

He also said that Malta forms the first or final leg of Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor which will facilitate further integration of Malta into European transport networks through the further development of motorways of the sea.

“Development of the national road network,” he added, “which internally connects Malta’s core sea ports and airport is also high on the political agenda of the Maltese government.”

With regard to the financing of the TEN-T network, Minister Mizzi stated that Malta is in full agreement with the aims and objectives of the Connecting Europe Facility and welcomes the special consideration now given to those smaller countries without railway services in respect of intermodality requirements.

“Innovative financing for TEN-T projects is indeed an interesting concept; however, we feel that it may not be easily applicable in certain situations, not least in the absence of revenue flows and economies of scale. Finally, given the limited funding available for the development of the TEN-T, Malta considers it important to keep all general listed priority areas open to funding without focus on new, more specific areas financial support which may not be always applicable or appropriate for all Member States.”

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