Introduction to A Guide to Guidance Sourcebook for PPPs in TEN-Transport

A well integrated and sustainable transport system for both people and goods remains a key policy objective for the European Union and essential for the future prosperity and the social welfare of Europe and its citizens. This is also the objective of the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) and progress towards completion of the network will contribute to the achievement of the Single Market.

The major transport projects necessary to complete the network are large and complex. We need to improve their planning, encourage innovation and promote new and sustainable financing arrangements. If we are to remove the bottlenecks, we need to draw on cutting edge expertise at the level of both the public and the private sector.

This is why the European Commission remains committed to exploring those opportunities that can come from a greater involvement of the private sector, in particular by increasing the role of public private partnership (PPPs). PPPs have already shown some good results in the past, but enhancing their delivery requires new expertise, capacity and knowledge in the public sector. For this reason, the Commission has been working together with the European Investment Bank through the European PPP Expertise Centre (EPEC) to promote the sharing of expertise and good practice necessary for the successful delivery of PPP programmes.

I am pleased to introduce the latest outcome of this cooperation. A Guide to Guidance - Sourcebook for PPPs in TEN-Transport.

In close cooperation, EPEC, the EIB, the EU Commission Services and the Member States have produced a document which I am confident will provide promoters with the means to access some of the best guidance currently available. In this way, the Guide to Guidance will complement the wider toolbox on PPPs that the European Commission has been developing in order to optimise the financing of transport infrastructure projects.

I hope you will find the Guide to Guidance useful and I invite you to discuss it with colleagues from the TEN-T Executive Agency and EPEC.

Siim Kallas

Vice President of the European Commission