Subject: If we want a competitive Europe that creates jobs, then people and goods have to be able to move around easily and quickly, and without harming the environment. That is the aim of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), a huge continental-scale programme that will interconnect the national transport infrastructures to create a genuine trans-European network.
In this context, rail offers important potential for easing traffic on major trans-European roads. The five railway axes the Union intends to take forward on a priority basis are: Paris-Bratislava, which will improve connections with the new Member States; Lyon-Budapest, or the East-West corridor south of the Alps; the high-speed southwest Europe axis, connecting France to the Iberian Peninsula; Berlin-Palermo, or the North-South corridor of central Europe; and Rail Baltica, which will connect Helsinki to Warsaw via the Baltic states.
To give impetus to these projects, the European Union has appointed important public figures to serve as European coordinators for the different axes. Their assignment is to bring the Member States involved together to come up with solutions to the problems and to speed up project execution.
A sixth coordinator has been appointed to oversee the implementation of a trans-European  industrial project: the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).  This project is crucial to ensuring an excellent network that is safe, reliable and interoperable.