126 new road-projects stand towards only 11 new rail connections. With this,
TEN has become the biggest road-building project in the history of Europe.
First estimations of the environmental effects say that TEN will produce
additional 15-18 % CO2 - emissions. Till
the year 2000 an increase of 60% in the traffic sector is more than
probable, which offends the climate aims of the convention in Rio
clearly.
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The way of financiation is also scandalous: in Brussels there are 280
million ECU at disposal for the projects but that´s only likely to cover
the planning costs of only one project. The extent of all traffic projects
until 2012 is 800 billion DM, until 1999 3,5 billion are assigned to come
from the EU. So the projects are underfinanced because the federal budget
has no money at disposal.
But these are not the only points of criticism. Missing transparency in the planning-process, no inclusion of real alternatives and analysis, massive destruction of the environment with not repairable damages, etc. It´s also astonishing that TEN misses clear ecological criterias, that the tests for environmental sociability were considered isolated from other projects and in the manual of the EU you can´t find clear guidelines about conservation. |
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Thüringen is also directly concerned with this planning-madness. Among
4 further projects (widening of the A9 and A4 to 6 lanes, completing the
gaps of the A44 and the construction of the "Südharz"-motorway) the
most popular - because most controversial- example is the project of the
A71/A73 (in connection with the ICE-railway) - the "Thüringer Wald-Autobahn"
("Thüringen Forest-Motorway"). The affects on the environment are so
radical, it doesn´t surprise that environmentalists and affected people
are protesting against it. But on the opposite side there is also hard
criticism. Railway insiders (under pseudonym) are warning of a billion-fiasco
because the route is by far not profitable with a cost-benefit-factor of
0,4.
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Even the german government had to admit the drop of the factor below
the intended line of 3,0 , because of an explosion of the costs (april
´94). Now at the latest the responsible people will get alarmed: On
the 29.9.96 there was a hearing in the parliament, where the environmental
office emphasized that "the crossing of the Thüringen Forest" by both
motorway and railtrack is ecologically not justifiable."
The BUND Thüringen (FoE), an owner of a part of the "Bettelmannsholz" (the location of the protest-camp), suspected that it´s now tried to create accomplished facts. Their complaint was rejected in a fast process, after their land was forcibly dispossessed for the benefit of the DEGES on the 1.10.96. The speed and the way evictions of the occupations took place also shows, how nervous and with how much pressure this spot was considered.
Now that the costs of the "Wald-Autobahn" have tripled to 6,5 billion
DM, it´s time that "the german government takes down it´s ideological
blinkers and deals seriously with the alternatives" (M. Spielmann, manager
of the BUND Thüringen). |
Taken from the newspaper "Reizzwecke" of the JAPS, Jena.
All translating mistakes by me...
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