There are indications within the OECD countries that PPPs will be increased, as member states become increasingly aware of the need for investment, knowledge and assistance to public sectors. Additional responsibilities of EU member states include, for example, complying with environmental requirements, which impose a heavy investment burden on governments. The amounts estimated for implementing environmental legislation in conformity with European standards range from €80 billion to €110 billion, or around 2 per cent of a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over a sustained period.15
Throughout the last two decades, the European Community has accumulated a certain amount of experience in PPPs in various areas, including public services, transport, health services provision and education. The execution and completion of the trans-European transport networks (TEN), which is falling behind schedule in the face of lack of funding, is among the infrastructure projects that could consider recourse to PPP arrangements.
Some of the new member states have additional investment requirements arising from their transition towards new economic, social and political systems. For example, many of these have relied historically on railways, hence their motorway networks require considerable investment. The World Bank estimated the infrastructure investment needs for the accession candidates to be €65 billion from 2003 over the next 15 years. It cites Poland as the country with the highest infrastructure investment needs (€21.4 billion), followed by the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Latvia, with some 70 per cent of these investment requirements being at municipal or regional levels of government.16
In order to cover these needs, as well as to assure development strategies are executed effectively, the European Union's legislative and institutional PPP framework must evolve further. The development of national PPP strategies may, however, differ (to those of the EU) depending on various factors. These factors include existing PPP progress, the degree of current legislative and institutional capacity and disparities between the member states. Certain models for future development may be suggested to the ten new member states and the three EU accession countries, depending on these abovementioned criteria. However, for the majority of new member states and the accession countries, the need to combine EU funding and private finances is inevitable.