Chapter I, Article 3 · Regulation (EU) 2024/1679

Contents

Article 3Definitions#

For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1)‘project of common interest’ means any project carried out pursuant to this Regulation;

(2)‘neighbouring country’ means a third country falling within the scope of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Enlargement Policy, and the European Economic Area, the European Free Trade Association or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part^note;

(3)‘NUTS region’ means a region as established by Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note and classified in Annex I of that Regulation;

(4)‘cross-border section’ means the section which ensures the continuity of a project of common interest on both sides of a border, situated between the closest urban nodes to the border of two Member States or between a Member State and a neighbouring country;

(5)‘bottleneck’ means a physical, technical, functional, operational or administrative barrier which leads to a system break, including systematic congestion or standstill, affecting the continuity of traffic for long-distance or cross-border flows;

(6)‘urban node’ means an urban area where elements of the transport infrastructure of the trans-European transport network for passengers and freight, such as ports, including passenger terminals, airports, railway stations, bus terminals and multimodal freight terminals, located in and around the urban area are connected with other elements of that infrastructure and with the infrastructure for regional and local traffic, including infrastructure for active modes;

(7)‘isolated network’ means a rail network of a Member State, or part thereof, with a track gauge different from that of the European standard nominal track gauge of 1435 mm;

(8)‘multimodal transport’ means the carriage of passengers or freight, or both, using two or more modes of transport;

(9)‘multimodal digital mobility service’ means ‘multimodal digital mobility service’ as defined in Article 4, point (24), of Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(10)‘interoperability’ means the ability, including in the light of all the regulatory, technical, administrative and operational conditions, of the infrastructure, including digital infrastructure in a transport mode or segment and between different transport modes, to allow safe and uninterrupted traffic and information flows which achieve the required levels of performance for that infrastructure mode or segment;

(11)‘multimodal passenger hub’ means a connection point between at least two transport modes for passengers, where travel information, access to public transport and transfers between modes are ensured, such as park-and-ride stations, and which acts as an interface within and between urban nodes and between urban nodes and longer-distance transport networks;

(12)‘multimodal freight terminal’ means a structure equipped for transhipment between at least two transport modes, or between two different rail systems, and for temporary storage of freight, such as terminals in inland or maritime ports, along inland waterways and in airports, as well as rail road terminals;

(13)‘sustainable urban mobility plan’ or ‘SUMP’ means a document for strategic mobility planning, aiming at improving, in a sustainable way, accessibility to and mobility within the functional urban area, including commuting zones in that urban area or in its vicinity), for people, businesses and goods in view in particular of a better quality of life;

(14)‘active mode’ means the transport of people or goods, through non-motorised means, based on human physical activity, including vehicles with electric auxiliary propulsion as referred to in Article 2(2), point (h), of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(15)‘ICT systems for transport’ means information and communications technology systems and applications using information, communication, navigation or positioning or localisation technologies, including space based technologies, which make it possible to process, store and exchange the data and information needed to manage infrastructure, mobility and traffic on the trans-European transport network effectively, to report relevant information to authorities and to provide services to citizens, shippers and operators that add value, including systems for resilient, safe, secure, environmentally sound and capacity-efficient use of the network; they include systems, technologies and services referred to in points (16) to (22) and may also include on-board devices with corresponding infrastructure or digital components;

(16)‘Intelligent Transport Systems’ or ‘ITS’ means ‘Intelligent Transport Systems’ as defined in Article 4, point (1), of Directive 2010/40/EU;

(17)‘Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System’ or ‘VTMIS’ means the ‘vessel traffic monitoring and information system’ established by Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(18)‘River Information Services’ or ‘RIS’ means ‘river information services (RIS)’ as defined in Article 3, point (a), of Directive 2005/44/EC of the Parliament and of the Council^note;

(19)‘European Maritime Single Window environment’ or ‘EMSWe’ means ‘European Maritime Single Window environment’, as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(20)‘Air Traffic Management/Air Navigation Service System’ or ‘ATM/ANS System’ means an ‘ATM/ANS system’ as defined in Article 3, point (7), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(21)‘European Rail Traffic Management System’ or ‘ERTMS’ means ‘European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)’, as defined in point 2.2 of Annex I to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1695^note, and in the context of implementation deadlines it refers to the Class A train protection system and any Class A radio system, referred to in that Regulation;

(22)‘radio-based ERTMS’ means the European Train Control System (ETCS) application level 2 that does not require lineside signals and uses a Class A radio system for the safety and non-safety related data exchange between track and train pursuant to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1695;

(23)‘class B systems’ means ‘class B systems’ as defined in point 3 of Annex II to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1695;

(24)‘maritime port’ means a ‘maritime port’ as defined in Article 2, point (16), of Regulation (EU) 2017/352 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(25)‘short-sea shipping’ means the movement of cargo and passengers by sea between ports situated in geographical waters of one or several Member States or between a port situated in waters of Member States and a port situated in waters of an adjacent third country having a coastline on the seas bordering waters of one or several Member States;

(26)‘electronic freight transport information’ or ‘eFTI’ means the electronic ‘freight transport information’ as defined in Article 3, point (4) of Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(27)‘single European sky’ or ‘SES’ means the systems established under Regulation (EC) No 549/2004^note (EC) No 550/2004^note, (EC) No 551/2004^note, and (EU) 2018/1139 of the European Parliament and of the Council to reinforce air traffic safety standards, to contribute to the sustainable development of the air transport system and to improve the overall performance of air traffic management and air navigation services for general air traffic in Europe;

(28)‘vertiport’ means an area used for the take-off and landing of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft;

(29)‘aircraft contact stand’ means a stand in a designated area of the airport apron equipped with a passenger boarding bridge;

(30)‘aircraft remote stand’ means a stand in a designated area of the airport apron not equipped with a passenger boarding bridge;

(31)‘SESAR project’ means the project to modernise air traffic management in Europe, aimed at providing the Union with a high performance, standardised and interoperable air traffic management infrastructure, and consisting in an innovation cycle that includes the SESAR definition phase, the SESAR development phase and the SESAR deployment phase;

(32)‘spaceport’ means an installation for testing and launching space crafts;

(33)‘Europe’s Rail Project’ means a project of the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking established by Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085^note, or its predecessor Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking;

(34)‘European ATM Master Plan’ means the plan endorsed by Council Decision 2009/320/EC^note, and as subsequently amended;

(35)‘rail freight governance’ means the governance bodies referred to in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) No 913/2010;

(36)‘maintenance’ means works intended to maintain the condition and capability of existing infrastructure in a way that it provides a level of service suited to the traffic flow and a high level of safety during its lifetime;

(37)‘socio-economic cost-benefit analysis’ means a quantified ex-ante evaluation, based on a recognised methodology, of the value of a project, taking into account all the relevant social, economic, health, climate-related and environmental benefits and costs; the analysis of climate-related and environmental costs and benefits is based on the environmental impact assessment carried out pursuant to Directive 2011/92/EU;

(38)‘alternative fuels’ means ‘alternative fuels’, as defined in Article 2, point (4), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804;

(39)‘safe and secure parking area’ means a parking area accessible to drivers engaged in the carriage of goods or passengers, meeting the requirements listed in Article 8a(1) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note and which has been certified in accordance with Union standards and procedures, referred to in Article 8a(2) of that Regulation;

(40)‘weigh in motion system’ means an automatic system set up on the road infrastructure with the objective of identifying vehicles or vehicle combinations in circulation that are likely to have exceeded the relevant weight limits, in accordance with Directive 96/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(41)‘project authorising decision’ means a decision or a set of decisions, including of an administrative nature, taken simultaneously or successively, by an authority or authorities of a Member State, not including administrative and judicial appeal authorities, under a national legal system and administrative law that determines whether or not a project promoter is entitled to implement a project on the geographical area concerned on the core network, extended core network or comprehensive network, without prejudice to any decision taken in the context of an administrative or judicial appeal procedure.