At the beginning of the 1950s’ the European Union started to focus on the creation of an internal market and on the reinforcement of European economic development and growth and social unity, as well as the creation of employment. It made little sense to talk of a big EU market, with freedom of movement within it for goods, persons and services, unless the various regions and national networks were properly linked by modern and efficient infrastructure.

The Trans-European Networks (TENs) were thus created by the Treaty Establishing the European Community in 1957 under the terms of Articles 129b-129d of Title XII , that first provided a legal basis for the TENs: "To help achieve the objectives referred to in Articles 7a and I30a and to enable citizens of the Union, economic operators and regional and local communities to derive full benefit from the setting up of an area without internal frontiers, the Community shall contribute to the establishment and development of trans' European networks in the areas of transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructures.".

The European Commission developed broad guidelines for the identification of objectives, priorities, and projects of common interest for the three sectors concerned (Transports, Energy and Telecommunications). The European Parliament and the Council approved these guidelines after consultation with the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Various actors from the political, industrial and financial market had a decisive role to put into practice the ideas that had been contemplated.

The documents included in these funds have a special focus (but not only) on the "Transports" sector of the TENs, and on some of the actors in its development, especially the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT), and the European Centre for Infrastructure Studies (ECIS), in the years 1985-2000.

The TENs fonds were property of Alfonso Sabatino, formerly FIAT manager and representative of Italy at ECIS, who collected them during his career and then deposited them at the HAEU.

Studies of Trans-European Networks (TENs). The structure of the sub-fonds reflects the original regrouping of the depositor.

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