Letter to: Mrs Violetta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport

Letter to: Mrs Violetta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport Copy to: Mr Jean-­‐Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission Mr Michael Cramer, Chair of the Committee on Transport and Tourism of the European Parliament Mr J. Aguiar Machado, Director-­‐General for Mobility and Transport (MOVE) Mr Herald Ruijters, Head of Unit in the DG Mobility and Transport (MOVE), Trans European network (B.1) Mr Stéphane Ouaki, Head of Unit in the DG Mobility and Transport (MOVE), Connecting Europe -­‐ infrastracture investment strategy (B.4) Dear Commissioner, Thank you very much for your reply (ARES (2015)2460247 -­‐ 6th July 2015) regarding the new railway link Lyon-­‐Turin, part of the TEN-­‐T projects and funded under the budget of the European Union. We are very interested in following up the OLAF investigation and in the compatibility of the funding application with the European regulation. In the meantime the European Commission announced on 29th June 2015 a new investment plan in 276 transport projects for a total amount of € 13.1 billion. As reported in the press release of the Commission "This investment will unlock additional public and private co-­‐financing for a combined amount of €28.8 billion". In the list of "proposals selected for receiving EU financial assistance in the field of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) -­‐ Transport sector following the calls for proposals launched on 11 September 2014 based on the Multi -­‐ Annual Work Programme" we can find the approval by the European Commission of the project "Section transfrontaliere de la section internationale de la nouvelle liaison ferroviaire Lyon-­‐Turin -­‐ Tunnel de Base du Mont-­‐Cenis (TBM)" (2014-­‐EU-­‐TM-­‐0401-­‐
M*) proposed by the Ministere de l'Ecologie, du Developpement Durable et de l'Energie. The estimated total eligible costs of the action is € 1,981 billion and the maximum EU financial contribution is € 813,781 million (41%) (http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/news/doc/2015-­‐06-­‐29-­‐cef/selection-­‐decision-­‐
map-­‐2014.pdf -­‐ page 4). In order to fulfil our obligations and duties as Members of the European Parliament and considering the public interest and the need of transparency in the expenditure and procedure adopted, we ask you to receive a copy or to have access to the following documents: -­‐ all the documents (invoices, contracts, certifications, ecc.) related to the costs and expenditures of EU money for the project of the new railway link Turin -­‐ Lyon in the past 5 years; -­‐ funding application (2014-­‐EU-­‐TM-­‐0401-­‐M*) by French Ministere de l'Ecologie, du Developpement Durable et de l'Energie, as previously mentioned and finally approved by the European Commission. Please let us know when and how we can exercise our right to have access to the previous documents, even if considered sensitive, "top secret", "secret" or "confidential". Best regards.