Brussels, 02/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European commissioner for transport, Siim Kallas, was pessimistic about the threats hanging over the new policy instrument proposed by the Commission last autumn in the context of current negotiations on the EU's budget and cohesion policy. The CEF makes €21.7 billion available for financing cross-border transport infrastructure projects. To this is added €10 billion from the cohesion fund in order to ensure that eligible countries truly benefit from the CEF, especially between east and west. Attending a conference organised on Thursday 2 February by the European Policy Centre (EPC), Kallas expressed surprise at the criticism voiced by cohesion countries themselves. “This separate budget line was established for their benefit to help them overcome difficulties delivering complex cross-border rail projects and to ensure they can finance those important projects with the same high co-financing rates”. In addition to enduring the rejection of cohesion countries, he said he was very concerned about the way talks were heading on CEF in the context of adopting the multiannual financial framework, at a time when member states have to reduce their spending. He understood in this context the symbolic wish to give up the €10 billion but says that will not help budgetary deficits to be addressed. Furthermore, the European Automotive Manufacturers Association (ACEA) is highly critical of the fact that there are no road projects in the projects preselected for the CEF. The association considers that the proposals excludes road transport, which nonetheless needs funds, in total contradiction with the proposed revision for the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), which provides for all transport modes to be developed, ACEA states. The commissioner justified this point, explaining that the top priority was to finance modes of transport that are most able to reduce congestion, such as rail transport. He also added that road infrastructure could be financed in other ways, including by member states or even from structural funds. (MD/transl.jl)