The European Union (EU) has awarded a €34 million grant to support construction works on a rail link in Brussels as part of a wider investment plan for a high-speed corridor linking the city with Strasbourg.
Under the 2012 TEN-T Multi-Annual Call, the EU will support ongoing works on the Schuman-Josaphat tunnel in Brussels.
Construction work began in 2008 on the 1.3-kilometre tunnel. Once commisioned in 2015, the tunnel will improve links between the city’s European Quarter and the airport, and provide passengers from Mechelen, Hasselt, Leuven and Liege with a direct link to the city’s economic hub.
As well as improving rail links around the city – a programme known as the Regional Express Network – the funding will help complete an element of the high-speed Eurocaprail route between Brussels and Strasbourg via Luxembourg.
The money will be used to fund tunnel civil works, the extension of the Schuman multi-modal hub and construction work between the Watermael and Etterbeek stations.
This €34 million grant is totally self-serving; it is being used to ferry MEPs from Brussels to Strausbourg as they waste thousands of Euros to move the EU capital to Strausbourg every few weeks. If they were adults they would not move the capital every few weeks, but they act like 10 year old children except they make six-figure salaries. What a total waste of money!