To what extend has the Oresund Bridge TEN’s Project contribu­ted to the widening of the EU? Critical Analysis

It also needs smart grids to save energy and better manage the network.
The Commission has identified 12 priority corridors and areas for electricity, gas, oil and CO₂
transport networks, and is promoting projects to implement them.

The three straits between Denmark and Sweden.
The Oresund strait is the last one, connecting Copenhagen and Malmö

The Oresund Bridge linking Malmo in Sweden with Copenhagen in Denmark was opened to traffic on the 1st July 2000. The bridge is part of a 17 km crossing also consisting of a submerged tunnel and manmade island making up the other half of the link. Its total length is 7’845m, with a main span of 490 metres the Oresund Bridge is the both longest cable-stayed bridge carrying both road and rail traffic and has the highest freestanding pylons in the world.

Plans to link the Oresund region have been around for centuries but had always previously come up against strong opposition. Firstly in the 19th Century the plans were opposed by nationalists in both countries and more recently by environmentalists concerned with the impacts construction would have on the wildlife in the area surrounding the Oresund region. When the plans to build a link between Sweden and Denmark were approved, Georg Rotne was appointed as the designer and Arups as the engineers.

The building started in 1995 and went on without great interruptions except for two complications that occurred throughout the course of construction. The two schedule setbacks were the discovery of 16 unexploded World War II bombs on the seafloor and an inadvertently skewed tunnel segment – the bridge-tunnel was finished three months ahead of schedule.

Local Impacts of the bridge (on Sweden’s and Danish site)

The Øresund Region is an important hub for economic activity in Scandinavia, and the Øresund Bridge is the link connecting Denmark and Sweden.

Statistics compiled in January 2007 show 14,000 people commuting each day over the Öresund Bridge. Compared with 2005, the commuter traffic increased by 43% in 2006. The growing number of Swedes commuting in order to take advantage of the need for labour on the job market in Copenhagen and the higher salaries offered in Denmark, as well as an increased immigration of Danes to the south of Sweden, were essential factors in the traffic increase. In 2006, 4,300 persons moved from the Danish part of the Øresund Region to Scania, attracted by lower Scanian real estate prices. Since July 2000, 22,500 Danes have moved to Scania.

Apart from work related commuting, Swedes cross over to Copenhagen to enjoy shopping and nightlife, to attend cultural and educational institutions and to use Copenhagen Airport. The airport in Scania, Malmö Airport is located 47 km from Copenhagen Airport and has limited international air traffic.

After the opening of the bridge, an 'Öresund identity' has been promoted in the region in order to counter-act various barriers to cross-border cooperation caused by nationalistic sentiments on both sides. In 1997, a consortium of twelve universities (four Swedish and eight Danish) from both sides of the Sound has been established, opening up all courses, libraries and other facilities to all students, teachers and researchers from the region. The universities have 150,000 students and more than 14,000 researchers combined.

The commercial interaction across the border has also significantly increased. Currently, an average of 15,800 vehicles crosses the bridge each day.

The ports of Copenhagen and Malmö were merged in 2001 to form a single company, Copenhagen Malmö Port. This cross-border merger of two ports into one legal entity is the first in history, according to Copenhagen Malmö Port AB, the Swedish registered limited liability company operating the port, a company equally owned by Port of Copenhagen and Port of Malmö.

In the year following the opening, however, the IT bubble burst hitting the Swedish and Danish economies, albeit at different rates. The Swedish economy was hit suddenly and hard and nosedived: growth in GDP at current prices fell from 7 per cent in 2000 to 1.7 per cent in 2001. By contrast, the Danish economy took several years to adjust: growth bottomed out in 2003 with growth in GDP at current prices of 2 per cent.

The ensuing years from 2003 to 2007 were again characterised by an economic boom which lasted until the global financial crisis cast its shadows over the global economy in 2008. Even so, the Danish economy showed modest growth of 3.6 per cent in GDP in current prices in 2007. Above all, however, this was an expression of the fact that the Danish economy was overheating to a point where it was difficult to achieve further growth in output.

Economic growth in the Øresund Region’s two national parts is increasingly characterised by domestic conditions rather than by the conditions and economic situation in the opposite part of the region. In 2006 – 2007, economic growth in Scania developed in the opposite direction to that of the rest of Sweden. As growth in the rest of Sweden declined, economic growth in Scania rose to 8.0 and 8.9 per cent in two years (current prices).

The gross regional product per capita, however, remains around 10 per cent lower in Scania than in Sweden overall. At 55 per cent, the employment rate in Scania is significantly lower than in Sweden as a whole (59 per cent) and in Zealand and the islands (64 per cent).

Transport

In 2009, 4 per cent of vehicle traffic on the Øresund Bridge was accounted for by HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) traffic, i.e. an average of 817 Lorries per day. From 2001 to 2009, HGV traffic rose by 94 per cent owing to two factors: first, the Øresund Bridge’s role as a key international transit route between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe and secondly, because many businesses have reviewed their location and logistics requirements.

More than half the bus/coach traffic to and from the Scandinavian Peninsula uses the Øresund Bridge. Bus/coach traffic is divided into scheduled and tourist services. Traffic comprises local services between Copenhagen and Malmö, Lund and Malmö-Sturup airport, international coach services between major European cities and tourist services. As bus/coach traffic has not benefited from the same favourable trends as vehicle and HGV traffic, this traffic category has seen a general decline in recent years.

Between 2001 and 2006, bus/coach traffic across the Øresund Bridge increased by 51 per cent. Since2006, however, bus/coach traffic has seen a 25 percent fall. Local services have encountered strong competition from the trains and low price airlines have taken market share from international services. At the same time, the sector has been consolidated in order to achieve improved economy of scale.

This has reduced the number of buses/coaches on the roads albeit with more passengers in each vehicle. In 2009, an average of 117 buses/coaches crossed the Øresund Bridge per day.

Owing to the slower speed of freight trains, however, it is not possible to use the high capacity in full. Passenger traffic on the rail line is primarily operated by DSBFirst, which assumed responsibility for Øresund train operations in January 2009. SJ (Swedish railways) operates the X2000 from Copenhagen to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Kalmar. Several companies run freight traffic on the Øresund Bridge rail line.

On the Danish side, the network operates from Kastrup airport via Copenhagen Central Station and Nørreport to Elsinore. On the Swedish side, the Network serves Malmö with branches to Gothenburg, Kalmar and Karlskrona. 90 per cent of passenger journeys are regional as four out of five passengers are resident in Sweden with one in five residing in Denmark.

Migration

In 1999, the year before the opening of the Øresund Bridge, 2,400 Danes lived in Malmö while 2,800 Swedes lived in Copenhagen. Today, ten years on, 12,000 Danes live in Malmö and 4,000 Swedes in Copenhagen. During the Øresund Bridge’s first decade, the number of Danes living in Malmö has risen by 338 per cent while the number of Swedes who have settled in Copenhagen has increased by 38 per cent.

Industry

As elsewhere in the western world, the Øresund Region’s commercial structure is undergoing transition. Employment in the private service sector is rising while in manufacturing industries and agriculture, it is declining. Within the Øresund Region, however, there are marked internal differences in how far the structural changes have come. In the Capital Region of Denmark, the manufacturing industry (including the construction sector) accounted for around 14 per cent of total employment in 2007. This can be compared with Region Zealand and Region Scania where manufacturing industry accounted for 22 and 23 per cent of overall employment.

While employment in the manufacturing industry has declined in all three areas, the decline is most significant in the Capital Region of Denmark. Instead, the Capital Region of Denmark is characterised by high employment in the private service sector: 47 per cent. In Region Zealand and Region Scania, the private sector accounts for 39 and 38 per cent of all people in employment, respectively.

Tourism

For many years, the Scanians have been frequent visitors to their nearest capital, Copenhagen, and have made use of its many cultural offerings. Since the bridge’s arrival, this has been the case more than ever before. Historically, Danes have visited Scania much less than Scanians have visited Denmark. After the bridge, however, the Danes changed their travel habits.

Visits to family or friends in Scania, shopping in Malmö or weekend breaks at one of the many Scanian castles or estates have become a regular weekend pastime for Zealanders. Many Danes, for instance, spend Easter Thursday, a public holiday in Denmark, but not in Sweden, shopping in Malmö or in other Scanian cities.

Leisure traffic on the bridge: In 2003, twice as many Swedish cars headed for a leisure trip to Copenhagen compared to the number of Danish cars heading in the opposite direction. While Swedish leisure traffic rose steadily between 2003 and 2008 (68 per cent), the increase in Danish cars was 23 per cent over the same period. The autumn of 2008, however, saw a huge shift in this pattern: the fall in the Swedish krone tempted thousands of Danes on shopping trips to Malmö so that Danish leisure traffic rose by 70 per cent in just one year.

Additionally, more people from all over Europe are travelling to the north. The E20, one of Europe’s main auto routes, which was built as an E-Route, leads over the Oresund Bridge. It runs roughly west-east through
Ireland, the
United Kingdom,
Denmark,
Sweden,
Estonia
and finally
Russia. The length is 1,880 km, connecting the east with the west.

Agriculture

Even though that agriculture is declining, the bridge bound these two countries also in this area more together. Sweden, one of the main exporters for wood, now has an easier way of getting its products onto the European market. Also other countries get the chance to import their products to Sweden by Lorries and trucks, not needing any cargo ships anymore making the exchange of ideas and goods cheaper.

The bridge pulled Sweden and its economy closer to the core of Europe.