Governance Economy

Connecting Europe Facility 2: 42 Billion Euros To Improve Europe’s Transport Network

Connecting Europe Facility is the European Union’s key financing instrument to promote growth, employment and competitiveness through investment in infrastructures Europe-wide. It supports the development of trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services in order to have highly efficient, sustainable and interconnected infrastructures.

Posted on 07.24.2018

Carles Rúa

Carles Rúa is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Port de Barcelona and Director of the Master’s degree in Executive in Supply Chain Management at the UPC.

The European Union will allocate new fundings to the trans-European transport network. [Image of Suganth]

On the 2nd of May, the European Commission presented its proposed Multi-annual Financial Framework for the period 2021-2027 for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The proposal includes a budget of 42.265 billion euros to finance the Trans-European Networks in the areas of transport, telecommunication and energy. Bearing in mind today’s circumstances, with the threat of Brexit and different states calling for a reduction in contributions to the European cause, the fact that this amount is substantially higher than the 32.242 billion euros which was assigned to the first CEF package in the period 2014-2020 can be considered a success in European transport policy. As a general rule, the co-financing ratio should not exceed 30% of the eligible costs. This co-financing could increase to 50% in the case of cross-border connections and up to 85% in the case of contributions from the cohesion funds. Of the 42.265 billion, 30.615 billion will be earmarked to the trans-European transport networks, 6.65 billion to the energy network and 3 billion to the communication networks. Just as in the previous period, the transport network is the one that receives the most financial support.

The budget earmarked to the trans-European transport network envisages three different sources of financing: the general framework, which all countries can draw from; a contribution from the Cohesion Funds, which is only for countries that can receive these funds; and, as a new feature of this proposal, a significant budgetary item worth 6.5 billion euros from the Defence Cluster to support military mobility.

In the presentations by the INEA and the European Commission so far, the destination of this last budgetary item has not yet been clearly defined. There is talk of infrastructures which will be used for civilian purposes 99% of the time, but which must be adapted to military mobility, in terms of their gauge, for example. The proposal is based on the Action Plan on Military Mobility adopted by the Commission in March 2018, and apparently each Member States can define its own priorities in this area.

Sixty percent of the budget from the general framework will be earmarked to developing the network, primarily in terms of infrastructure, while the remaining 40% will be allocated to modernising the existing network through the deployment of information systems (SESAR, RIS, etc.), digitalisation, improvements in security, etc. A line item on Maritime Motorways is also expected to be included in this 40%.

Within the budgetary items devoted to developing the network, 75% of the financing will be spent on the 9 Core Network Corridors, 10% to other parts of the core network and 15 % to the overall network.

As a general rule, the co-financing ratio of the projects submitted should not exceed 30% of the eligible costs. This co-financing could increase to 50% for cross-border connections and contributions from the Cohesion Funds, and up to 85% for cross-border actions.

The annexe of the same proposals modifies the definition of trans-European networks with a new proposal that includes new stretches of this network.

The current definition of the TEN-T and the new proposal forwarded for consideration by the Parliament.

In Spain, the main changes in the TEN-T include the extension of the Atlantic Corridor to the northwest of the Peninsula with the development of connections in the ports of La Coruña and Gijón, the connection in Huelva and the connection between Zaragoza and Vitoria, which will, de facto, reinforce the Cantabrian-Mediterranean axis between Bilbao, Zaragoza and Tarragona. Connections have also been added with the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, even though in this case the connection will unfortunately not have any apparent practical consequences if the definition of Maritime Motorways does not change. Indeed, for a project to be considered a Maritime Motorway, it must include at least two ports (at least one of which has to belong to the core network) of two different member states and a maritime connection that joins them. The fact that the two ports have to belong to two different member states will prevent a Barcelona-Palma or Valencia-Palma connection from receiving Maritime Motorway financing.

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Connecting Europe Facility 2: 42 Billion Euros To Improve Europe’s Transport Network

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