Overview
The Mediterranean Corridor is the main east-west axis in the TEN-T Network south of the Alps. It links the Spanish ports of Algeciras, Cartagena, Valencia, Castellὀn, Tarragona and Barcelona with Madrid and along the Mediterranean coastline through southern France- Marseille and Nice until Italy Genoa and La Spezia. It runs from Marseille towards Lyon across the Alpes and northern Italy via Turin, Milan, Verona, Bologna, Padova, Venice and Trieste. It links also with Ljubljana and a branch via Croatia (Rijeka, Zagreb), to Budapest and to Lviv in Ukraine. The Corridor is approximately 3 000 km long. It covers rail and road, airports, ports, freight multimodal terminals, RRT's and, in Northern Italy, also the Po river inland waterway. Key projects are the gauge change to European standard guage in Spain, the new high-speed line Montpellier-Perpignan, the Lyon-Turin railway base tunnel, the second rail track on the Koper-Divaca line and the overall modernisation of railways infrastructure in the Eastern part of the Corridor.
Challenges
A key section of the corridor is the new cross-border rail link between France and Italy (Lyon-Turin). In addition, the cross-border links with Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Ukraine need to be taken into account. Multimodal connections with ports in Spain and France have to be developed and some railway sections in Italy and France need to be upgraded in order to remove bottlenecks. The coexistence of two gauges (1668 mm in Spain and 1435 mm in the other countries) is another challenge for this corridor, as is the full integration of the newest member of the Corridor – Ukraine. In coming years, more attention is necessary to develop further multimodal freight terminals along the Mediterranean European Transport Corridor. A better connectivity of the maritime ports of the Corridor with the hinterland should be achieved, contributing to a modal shift to railways.
European Coordinator for the TEN-T Mediterranean Corridor, Mr Mathieu Grosch
Mathieu Grosch was born on 14 September 1950 in Eupen, Belgium.
Previous assignments
1981–1983: Advisor to the Prime Minister of Belgium Wilfried Martens
1984–1986: Advisor to the Prime Minister of the German-speaking Community Joseph Maraite
1985–1986: Member of the Provincial Council, Province Liège
1986–1990: Minister for Social Affairs, Sports and Youth, German-speaking Community
1986–1994: Member of Council, German-speaking Community
1990–1994: Chairman of Council, German-speaking Community
1991–2012: Mayor of Kelmis
1994–2014: Member of the European Parliament
1994–1994: Member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation
1994–1995: Member of the Delegation for relations with the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia
1994–1999: Substitute of the Committee on Regional Policy
1995–1997: Member of the Delegation to the EU-Czech Republic Joint Parliamentary Committee
1997–1999: Member of the Delegation for relations with Slovenia
1997–1999: Vice-Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control
1999–1999: Member of the Delegation to the EU-Slovenia Joint Parliamentary Committee
1999–2004: Member of the Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee
1999–2004: Member of the Committee on Regional Policy
1999–2004: Substitute of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
2002–2004: Substitute of the Delegation to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee
2004–2009: Member of the Delegation to the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee
2004–2009: Substitute of the Committee on Regional Development
1994-2014: Member of the European Parliament, Member of the EPP bureau
1994-2014: Member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism of the European Parliament
1996-2014: Member of the board of Bierset-Liège airport
2007-2014: Substitute of the Delegation for relations with Japan
2009-2014: Substitute of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
2009-2014: Member of the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula
2009-2014: EPP Coordinator in the Committee on Transport and Tourism
2014-2024: The European Coordinator for the TEN-T Orient-East Med Corridor
Current tasks
Since 1986: Member of the national bureau of the CSP and of the European bureau of EPP
Since 9 September 2024, Mr Grosch is the European Coordinator for the TEN-T Mediterranean European Transport Corridor.
Mr Mathieu Grosch, European Coordinator
move-mediterranean-etc
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (move-mediterranean-etc[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Mr Wojciech Sopinski, Advisor of the European Coordinator
wojciech [dot] sopinskiec [dot] europa [dot] eu (wojciech[dot]sopinski[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Tel. +32-(0)2-299 9926
Postal address:
Mediterranean ETC / TEN-T
Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
Rue de Mot 28
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Maps
Workplans
1st Mediterranean TEN-T Corridor work plan
2nd Mediterranean TEN-T Corridor work plan
3rd Mediterranean TEN-T Corridor work plan
4th Mediterranean TEN-T Corridor work plan
5th Mediterranean TEN-T Corridor work plan
Studies
Mediterranean Study - 2nd Phase
Study on the Mediterranean TEN-T Core Network Corridor / 3rd Phase – Loop II / Final Report (2022)
Study on the Mediterranean TEN-T Core Network Corridor / 3rd Phase / Final Report (2023)