Economic globalization and low prices of fossil energy → in-creased mobility of goods and persons → ambivalent ef-fects: On the one hand, major transport investments (e.g. TEN) currently influence economic development along Euro-pean major transport axes or in the vicinity of transport nodes (e.g. airports), on the other hand European transport policy may widen rather than narrow differences in accessi-bility between central and peripheral regions → spatial de-velopment is required to balance short-term economic ad-vantages versus drawbacks of spatial disparities and adopt a long-term vision for spatial development that coordinates transport and economic projects

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