Europe has a wealth of experience with motorway concessions and the issues associated with concession contracts and other infrastructure funding systems, toll charges and other parts to remuneration, and risk sharing between concession authorities and concession companies.

September 2001 Europe has a wealth of experience with motorway concessions and the issues associated with concession contracts and other infrastructure funding systems, toll charges and other paths to remuneration, and risk sharing between concession authorities and concession companies. In a road infrastructure concession, a public authority grants specific rights to a private or semi-public company to construct, overhaul, maintain, and operate infrastructure for a given period. By contract, the public authority charges that company with making the investments needed to create the service at its own cost and to operate it at its own risk. The price paid to the company comes from the service's users, the public authority, or both. In 1999, out of roughly 51,000 kilometers of European motorways, about 17,000 kilometers (33 percent) were concessioned--16,400 kilometers by toll and 670 kilometers by shadow toll (design, build, finance, and operate arrangements). Of these, 73 percent are managed by the public sector and 27 percent by private companies. State-owned companies have been important in European motorway concessions. Systems vary among countries, for example, in how they share risks between the concession authority and the concession company. As the motorway network has grown denser, attributing commercial risk has become more difficult. Increasingly, public authorities must play a greater regulatory role. Already, bad experiences have made the private sector reluctant to bear the commercial risk. And the commercial risk is sometimes too great to be carried by the concession company alone. Commercial risk should be controlled by mechanisms incorporated in the contract, but control of the commercial risk must not eliminate incentives. In addition to safeguarding the community's interests, the public concession authority must increase citizen awareness about concession decisions, to ensure their social acceptability. Formulas for determining toll charges differ through Europe. So do criteria for selecting concession companies. In 1999, the main criteria used were these: * The amount of public subsidy required. * The credibility of the financial arrangements. * The project's technical quality. * The operating strategy and price policy. * The reputation of the concession company (whether it has a construction company among its shareholders, for example). The increasingly frequent use of private funding must be taken into account when defining the training required by personnel responsible for monitoring the concessions. This paper--a product of the Governance, Regulation, and Finance Division, World Bank Institute--is part of a larger effort in the institute to promote best practice in the regulation of privatized infrastructure. The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

This volume raises many challenging and controversial issues surrounding motorway procurement and finance in Europe. A somewhat surprising outcome is that a general appraisal bias can be identified in the following sense: Experts from countries which have introduced concession schemes for managing and financing of their motorways are very critical of these schemes, stressing their shortcomings and caveats. Some even conclude that public management under a regime of welfare maximisation would be desirable as a sustainable option. Experts from countries which have been sticking to public procurement and tax finance of motorways strongly attack the inefficiency of public planning regimes and the general tendency to allocate the revenues from special transport related taxes to the public budget, eventually spending them on other purposes rather than transport. A typical feature of the latter regime seems to be the chronic lack of funds for infrastructure investment. Although a single ideal country concept for motorway procurement and finance obviously cannot be identified, every paper gives some insights into possible future improvements. Therefore, beyond the rich documentation of national solutions it is the perspective on workable future concepts which makes the book a valuable guide through the jungle of manifold options for public/private partnerships. This book is a selection of papers presented to the international conference "Highways: Costs and Regulation in Europe", held in Bergamo on the 26th - 27th of November 2004. The Conference was organised by the University of Bergamo, and sponsored by the European Investment Bank.

Examines key principles that should be considered by governments in deciding how to provide and pay for surface transport infrastructure, with a view to best serving societies’ needs and employing public resources.

Over the last decade or so, private-sector financing through public-private partnerships (PPPs) has become increasingly popular around the world as a way of procuring and maintaining public-sector infrastructure, in sectors such as transportation (roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, ports, airports), social infrastructure (hospitals, schools, prisons, social housing) public utilities (water supply, waste water treatment, waste disposal), government offices and other accommodation, and other specialised services (communications networks or defence equipment). This book, based on the author's practical experience on the public- and private-sector sides of the table, reviews the key policy issues which arise for the public sector in considering whether to adopt the PPP procurement route, and the specific application of this policy approach in PPP contracts, comparing international practices in this respect. It offers a systematic and integrated approach to financing PPPs within this public-policy framework, and explains the project-finance techniques used for this purpose. The book deals with both the Concession and PFI models of PPP, and provides a structured introduction for those who are new to the subject, whether in the academic, public-sector, investment, finance or contracting fields, as well as an aide memoire for those developing PPP policies or negotiating PPPs. The author focuses on practical concepts, issues and techniques, and does not assume any prior knowledge of PPP policy issues or financing techniques. The book describes and explains:* The different types of PPPs and how these have developed* Why PPPs are attractive to governments* General policy issues for the public sector in developing a PPP programme* PPP procurement procedures and bid evaluation* The use of project-finance techniques for PPPs* Sources of funding* Typical PPP contracts and sub-contracts, and their relationship with the project's financial structure * Risk assessment from the points of view of the public sector, investors, lenders and other project parties* Structuring the investment and debt financing* The key issues in negotiating a project-finance debt facility. In addition the book includes an extensive glossary, as well as cross-referencing.*Reviews the PPP policy framework and development from an international perspective*Covers public- and private-sector financial analysis, structuring and investment in PPPs*No prior knowledge of project financing required

First published in 1952, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology) is well established as a major bibliographic reference for students, researchers and librarians in the social sciences worldwide. Key features * Authority: Rigorous standards are applied to make the IBSS the most authoritative selective bibliography ever produced. Articles and books are selected on merit by some of the world's most expert librarians and academics. *Breadth: today the IBSS covers over 2000 journals - more than any other comparable resource. The latest monograph publications are also included. *International Coverage: the IBSS reviews scholarship published in over 30 languages, including publications from Eastern Europe and the developing world. *User friendly organization: all non-English titles are word sections. Extensive author, subject and place name indexes are provided in both English and French. Place your standing order now for the 2003 volumes of the the IBSS Anthropology: 2002 Vol.48 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32634-6: £195.00 Economics: 2002 Vol.51 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32635-4: £195.00 Political Science: 2002 Vol.51 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32636-2: £195.00 Sociology: 2002 Vol.52 December 2003: 234x156: Hb: 0-415-32637-0: £195.00

Financing European Transport Infrastructure examines organisational arrangements for planning and financing transport infrastructure in Western Europe. It covers all modes of transport - road, rail, sea, air, urban, and inland waterways - and asks why their financing arrangements are so different. It looks at the division of responsibilities between central and local government, and the growing role of autonomous public bodies, the European Commission and private finance. It examines the consequences of investment failing to keep up with demand - in congestion, environmental damage and slower growth - and the impact of new approaches, including public-private partnerships.

There is a growing interest in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), particularly in infrastructure and public services. Under the scope of PPPs, renegotiations are becoming more relevant, as empirical evidence suggests that most PPP projects are inevitably renegotiated, i.e., the original contract needs to be adapted to new and unforeseen circumstances. Renegotiations have a substantial impact on the contract and performance of a PPP and usually represent significant costs for users and taxpayers. However, very little is known about the management and, mainly, the process of renegotiating that will, very likely, occur. This book provides a set of case-studies of PPP renegotiations in the transport sector. The authors illustrate the Portuguese experience, a country that has been using PPP extensively, particularly in transport. The case studies provide an extensive and detailed analysis on each aspect of the project and the renegotiation. What drives renegotiations? Why are some projects more renegotiated than others? What are the results? How can the performance of renegotiation processes be improved? These and other questions provide the basis for the discussions in this book. The novelty and value of the book come mainly from the extent of information available. Each case-study deals with these questions in much more detail than what is common in the case-studies approach.

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