The negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament on the two proposals are taking place as a matter of urgency. While this sounds awful, the truth is that the Channel Tunnel's situation has recovered since its initial cost overruns. The adoption of the amendments to the Statute of the ECJ will be essential at the end of these negotiations, before France is authorised to sign and conclude the actual agreement. A 2018 financial analysis of the Channel Tunnel, entitled 'The Channel Tunnel Cost Benefit Analysis after 20 years of operations,' notes that an investor from the beginning of the project would have seen a -0.22 rate of return. The draft regulation amending the safety and interoperability provisions will be split into two draft regulations, in order to amend the Statute of the European Court of Justice in a manner that respects the Court's prerogatives while avoiding a delay in the start of the negotiations.Ī swift adoption of the draft decision and draft regulation will allow the prompt start of the talks between France and the UK. Under the Council mandate, France will be empowered to negotiate an amendment to the Canterbury Treaty and the EU railway safety and interoperability rules will be amended so that the Intergovernmental Commission can be maintained as the safety authority competent for the application of EU law within the Channel Fixed Link.

Today, the Council's Permanent Representatives Committee agreed on a negotiation mandate on two proposals aimed at maintaining a single safety authority, which would continue to apply the same set of rules over the whole infrastructure, including in its section under UK jurisdiction.Ĭurrently, all matters concerning the operation of the Channel Fixed Link are supervised by an Intergovernmental Commission set up by the Treaty of Canterbury, signed between France and the UK in 1986. The EU is working on legislation to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the Channel Tunnel railway connection between continental Europe and the United Kingdom (Channel Fixed Link) after the end of the Brexit transition period. European Council President's speeches and statements.Why salamanders are important to you: 30 years of nature protection in Europe.Feeding Europe: 60 years of common agriculture policy.Your life online: How is the EU making it easier and safer for you?.At Ferrysavers weve made it easy for you to find the perfect bargain Channel crossing, just use our real-time comparison. You can book Eurotunnel routes to Folkestone and Eurotunnel routes to Calais. EU response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine With Ferrysavers you can book a cheap Eurotunnel Le Shuttle cross channel train service to France or England.Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup.

Charles Michel, President of the European Council.Samphire Hoe was opened to the public on 17 July 1997. The future nature reserve was sown with a mix a 31 differents species of wildflowers. Three quarter of this new British land was developed into the future nature reserve of Samphire Hoe while one quarter of the land was taken up by the UK cooling plant for the Tunnel. Once construction works were completed at the end of 1993, the contractor’s buildings were removed and final landscaping done. The area became a 24hours a day work site, 7 days a week.ĭuring the end of the construction phase, landscaping was progressively made to provide an undulating topography including some low lying wetlands. 1.7km of sheet piling enclosed lagoons were then infilled with the chalk marl. Almost 5 millions of cubic metres of spoil extracted from the tunnels were deposited behind the 1,7 km long (just over 1 mile) sea wall, reclaiming some 45 hectares (111 acres) from the English Channel.Īs the Tunnel boring machines cut the chalk marl, it was loaded onto rail tipper wagons, brought back along the Tunnel and then moved onto the surface by conveyor belt.

This also had the added advantage of providing an increased work area as tunnelling works progressed. The main advantage of this location was no need for any transportation of the spoil to another site and the creation of a large platform to be used as a work site as the Tunnel was dug.Įxtensive research revealed then that depositing spoil at the base of the cliff in artificial lagoons constructed with sheet piled walls was the most environmentally acceptable option. There was already access to the site from the Dover to Folkestone railway line and through a tunnel in the cliff left from the 1970s tunnel attempt. After considerable discussion in which around 60 sites were proposed for the disposal of the Channel Tunnel spoil, it was decided that the option with the least adverse environmental impact was to reclaim land from the sea at the base of Shakespeare Cliff.

Channel tunnel