Connecting Europe Facility

‘Connecting Europe Facility provides more than 33 billion Euros for infrastructure projects aimed at connecting the EUs regions.

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Mihai Pelin, 17.09.2021, 13:50

2021 is the European Year of Rail, declared by the EU to promote the more frequent use of transport by train, which is a safe and environmentally friendly means of transport. Since few rail accidents are reported, this is also the safest means of land transport. The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that, in exceptional situations, essential goods such as food, medicine and fuel can be transported quickly by rail.

However, the railway sector was severely affected by the crisis, and the number of passengers dropped substantially due to travel restrictions. Nevertheless, it can play an important role in achieving a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. Thus, in the summer, the European Parliament adopted the improved ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF) and provided new funding for the transport, energy and digital sectors for the period 2021-2027.

The program has a budget of over 33 billion Euros and will fund projects in the three areas with added value for the European Union. From this budget, Romania received an amount of approximately 1.2 billion Euros for investments in the transport infrastructure, for projects funded under the Cohesion Fund. In this case the EU co-financing rate can reach up to 85% of the total value of the project.

Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) will guarantee the completion in due time, by 2030, of several essential trans-European projects such as Rail Baltica, an infrastructure for alternative fuel supply and the introduction of 5G networks on major transport routes.

Almost 26 billion Euros will be allocated to transport projects, almost 6 billion Euros to the energy sector and about 2 billion Euros to the digital sector. Around 10 billion Euros allocated to cross-border transport projects will come from the Cohesion Fund and will support EU countries in completing transport connections that have been identified as missing. At the same time, 1.4 billion Euros will contribute to the accelerated completion of major cross-border railway projects that are falling behind schedule.

The projects benefiting from funding will be selected by the European Commission on a competitive basis. In the digital sector, the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ will support the development of projects of common interest. These include safe and secure high-capacity digital networks, as well as the digitalization of the transport and energy networks. The program also aims at increasing the interoperability level of energy networks and at ensuring that the funded projects comply with climate and energy plans at national and European Union levels. (LS)