-The European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) on Wednesday accepted an agreement with the Council of the EU on updated guidelines for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which now include more transport routes and hubs in Croatia.

The interim agreement reached last December between Council and Parliament negotiators is an update of the EU’s plan to build a network of railways, roads, inland waterways and short sea routes connected via ports and terminals across the European Union. Current TEN-T projects range from Rail Baltic, which connects Helsinki and Warsaw, to the Brenner tunnel, which connects Austria and Italy, or the Lisbon-Madrid high-speed rail line, the parliament said.

In Croatia, until now only the transport connection between Zagreb and the port of Rijeka was included in the European transport corridors, but the new guidelines now also include the ports of Split and Ploce, regional railways in the interior, airports and other infrastructure.

The updated guidelines, which include several amendments sponsored by IDS MEP Valter Flego, enable Croatia to have access to a fund of €26 billion provided by the EU’s financial framework until 2027 for the development of its transport infrastructure. These funds from the Connecting Europe Facility, CEF , are intended for the development of nine European corridors and connecting 424 European cities with ports, airports and railway terminals.

Flego said that “the European corridors bring large financial resources to Croatia, and Croatia is only one step away from up to 26 billion euros from Europe, which we will spend on financing large transport projects.”