30 
Moreover, according to Article 8(2) TP, the provisions of the Transport Protocol have 
no retroactive effect. This means that they do not affect infrastructure projects, which 
have already been decided or for which the need has already been recognised by law. 
During the negotiations, some parties tried to push through the idea of an assessment 
procedure in order to examine the compatibility of already decided projects with the 
Transport Protocol as well 106 . However, these attempts did not succeed. Therefore, as of 
the date of reference, which is 30 October 2000, the date of acceptance of the Transport 
Protocol, the contracting parties have only had to specify these projects in a separate 
list. The application of the different exceptions in political day-to-day life will show 
whether the derogation from the general prohibition remains exceptional or becomes the 
rule. 
Article 11 TP is certainly the most controversial provision of the Transport Protocol. It 
is mainly responsible for the ups and downs of the more than ten years long negotiations 
of the Protocol 107 . Especially the Community tried again and again to water down the 
content of the prohibition and to enlarge the scope of the exceptions 108 . But as it has 
been emphasized by Hablacher, if "the Alpine Convention shall have an added value 
compared to the existing international agreements, this passage of the Transport 
Protocol [Article 11] will have to be formulated in a restrictive manner." (own 
translation) 109 
This prohibition of any new high-capacity transAlpine motorway implies as of the 
Community's adherence to the Transport Protocol, it will not be possible any more to 
co-finance such infrastructure projects in the context of the TEN-T. There are still two 
big Member States, Italy and France, which have not yet ratified the Transport Protocol. 
Should they want to build new infrastructures falling under the Transport Protocol, they 
could not hope to be supported financially by Community means. 
106 R. Gschöpf. "Nach EU-Eklat: Verkehrsprotokoll der Alpenkonvention in Endbegutachtung". (1999) 
10+11 EUropa-Info 10. 
107 For further details, see supra, 3.2. Ups and downs of the history of the Transport Protocol, p. 14. 
108 P. Hablacher. "Die Alpenkonvention und ihr Verkehrsprotokoll", in Transitforum Austria Tirol (ed.). 
Am Brenner fiir die Alpen. Tatort Brenner. Vol. 2. Innsbruck 2000. 
109 See supra, note 108.