The European Union is drawing up a $19.66 billion plan to overhaul its road, rail, and bridge networks to cut the time it would take to move tanks, troops, and military equipment across the continent in the event of war with Russia, said EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas in comments to the Financial Times on July 29.
The effort aims to reduce transit time from “weeks or months” to just “a matter of hours, maximum a matter of days,” Tzitzikostas said.
“We have old bridges that need to be upgraded. We have narrow bridges that need to be widened. And we have nonexistent bridges to be built,” Tzitzikostas warned, highlighting the current infrastructure’s inability to support heavy military machinery like tanks, which can weigh up to 70 tonnes—nearly double the load European roads and bridges are typically built for.
Tzitzikostas emphasized that much of Europe’s transportation infrastructure was never designed with defense in mind, making the rapid movement of NATO forces across borders all but impossible without significant investment.
“The reality today is that if we want to move military equipment and troops from the western side of Europe to the eastern side, it takes weeks and in some cases months,” he said.
The plan includes the modernization of around 500 critical infrastructure nodes along four undisclosed military corridors stretching across the continent. These routes were identified in close coordination with NATO and the alliance’s military command, though their exact locations remain classified for security reasons.
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To complement the physical upgrades, Brussels is also targeting bureaucratic inefficiencies—such as complex customs and logistics paperwork—that could delay or immobilize cross-border deployments. “We want to avoid tanks being stuck in paperwork,” Tzitzikostas said.
The infrastructure overhaul is set to become a key component of the EU’s broader defense posture, especially as concerns mount over a potential Russian attack on NATO’s eastern flank by the end of the decade.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte recently warned that Russia could launch an assault on an alliance member as early as 2030.
The strategy is also being shaped by the anticipated reduction of the US military presence in Europe and Washington’s increasing calls for European nations to shoulder more of their own defense burden.
The EU is currently weighing a rearmament plan of up to $936 billion as part of this pivot toward self-reliance.
Tzitzikostas noted that the mobility initiative aligns with NATO’s new defense spending target of 5% of GDP, with 1.5% earmarked specifically for infrastructure.
“We cannot afford anymore not to be ready or be dependent,” he said.
Earlier, the Dutch government was taking steps to prepare its civilian infrastructure for military use.
The Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense is in talks with the national railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), to purchase 24 decommissioned train cars that would be converted into mobile hospitals for transporting wounded soldiers.
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