tible with this
Treaty. The Commission shall be notified of them.
TITLE XII
Trans-European networks
ARTICLE 129b
1. To help achieve the objectives referred to in Articles 7a and 130a
and to enable citizens of the Union, economic operators and regional
and local communities to derive the full benefit from the setting up of
an area without internal frontiers, the Community shall contribute to
the establishment and development of trans-European networks in the
areas of transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructures.
2. Within the framework of a system of open and competitive markets,
action by the Community shall aim at promoting the interconnection
and inter-operability of national networks as well as access to such
networks. It shall take account in particular of the need to link island,
landlocked and peripheral regions with the central regions of the
Community.
ARTICLE 129c
1. In order to achieve the objectives referred to in Article 129b, the
Community:
- shall establish a series of guidelines covering the objectives,
priorities and broad lines of measures envisaged in the sphere of
trans-European networks; these guidelines shall identify projects of
common interest;
- shall implement any measures that may prove necessary to ensure
the inter-operability of the networks, in particular in the field of
technical standardization;
- may support the financial efforts made by the Member States for
projects of common interest financed by Member States, which are
identified in the framework of the guidelines referred to in the first
indent, particularly through feasibility studies, loan guarantees or
interest rate subsidies; the Community may also contribute, through
the Cohesion Fund to be set up no later than 31 December 1993
pursuant to Article 130d, to the financing of specific projects in
Member States in the area of transport infrastructure.
The Community's activities shall take into account the potential
economic viability of the projects.
2. Member States shall, in liaison with the Commission, co-ordinate
among themselves the policies pursued at national level which may
have a significant impact on the achievement of the objectives
referred to in Article 129b. The Commission may, in close co-operation
with the Member States, take any useful initiative to promote such co-
ordination.
3. The Community may decide to co-operate with third countries to
promote projects of mutual interest and to ensure the i