From road to waterways: Commission advances Seine-Scheldt cross-border flagship project to strengthen decarbonisation and economic opportunities

The European Commission has today adopted a decision laying down the steps and timeline to complete the Seine-Scheldt cross-border project. Once completed, the Seine basin will be directly linked by continuous inland waterway to the Scheldt basin in the north of France and in Belgium. It will also further be linked to the Scheldt basin in The Netherlands and to other important European waterway basins such as the Rhine and the Meuse.

Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: "This roadmap marks a major milestone for the project. The new link will help reach our ambitious decarbonisation objectives by shifting traffic from road to inland waterways, while opening new economic opportunities in the regions concerned and in this way strengthening social and territorial cohesion."

The project is a key link of the North Sea - Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European transport Network (TEN-T) and one of its five major projects. The roadmap towards the completion of the project was elaborated in agreement with France and the Belgian regions of Flanders and Wallonia. It shows that the different parties are committed to the realisation of the project and underlines the participation of the Commission in the project governance. This decision takes form of an implementing act and is the third one adopted by the Commission for a major TEN-T cross-border project.

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1118 of 27 June 2019 on the Seine – Scheldt cross-border project on the North Sea – Mediterranean and Atlantic Core Network Corridors