Brussels, 02/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Time is pressing. The Commission plans to defend the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), while negotiations on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) are tending towards budget cuts. The Commission therefore sought to support the CEF during a conference organised on the subject in Brussels on Tuesday 2 October. Nonetheless, the relevant commissioners are well aware that there is still scepticism with regard to the CEF, mainly on the subject of transferring €10 billion from Cohesion Funds to investment in transport.
In 2011, the Commission presented the Facility with a budget of €50 billion to invest in cross-border transport infrastructure (€31.7 billion), energy (€9.1 billion) and telecommunications (€9.2 billion), in order to do fill in the missing links on those networks. This is “a European level solution to a challenge individual member sates cannot overcome alone”, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso summed up, well aware that member states are tempted to give priority to national rather than transnational projects. However, Europe needs to be connected in order to be competitive and in order to grow, he said, deploring the fact that the networks throughout Europe are still “incomplete, inefficient or simply inexistent”, in particular where needs are the most acute, as in some countries of central and eastern Europe. In his eyes, the CEF is therefore an essential pillar in the EU budget, and he urges stakeholders to put pressure on their governments to defend the Facility as, he said, it is not possible to have an agreement on CEF if it is only a matter of a culture where each party takes a financial package that it uses at will.
What about cohesion? This is what fuels the scepticism towards CEF as €31.7 billion foreseen for transport are in fact fed by €10 billion from the Cohesion Fund, which is enough to displease Cohesion Policy beneficiaries. European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn declares that one should not forget the concerns of stakeholders regarding real added value compared to national allocations and the capacity of member states to get adequate projects up and running. Consequently, he believes that a satisfactory solution must be found for everyone without compromising European added value of CEF, that it is necessary to remain open to compromise proposals, and that the national envelopes of member states should be respected.
Leverage effect. Siim Kallas, the commissioner responsible for transport, naturally defends the need to increase CEF amounts for transport, saying: “Just up to 2020, we will need about €500 billion to complete the trans-European network. (…) It is obvious that the available public money will not be enough”. He is convinced that it will be necessary to turn to private investors, saying: “This is where the EU can act, by helping to generate the large amounts of infrastructure investment that we need - with the CEF”. He calculates that the leverage effect of €31.7 billion could in time generate €140-150 billion in investment.
Deploying broadband. Additional funding is essential to complete the digital single market and to provide all citizens without exception with broadband connection, said Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. She is adamant about the leverage effect that each euro cent invested in digital infrastructure deployed at European level will generate. Electronic public contracts would, for example, make it possible to save €100 billion annually, and cloud computing would help save €250 billion. “Every member state will get back more total investment than they put in. The EU budget gets its money back, with interest”, she said. Kroes went on to comment on CEF funding foreseen for the digital agenda, saying: “Without investment, we condemn our citizens to slow connections with frequent blackouts; we make our businesses less competitive and less productive; we force our public authorities to meet 21st century expectations using 20th century systems”. (MD/transl.jl)
Completing the single market and ensuring solidarity. Günther Oettinger, Energy Commissioner, said that, in the energy sector, they will not be able to pursue their energy policy objectives without added value in terms of quality and infrastructure capacity. He explained that, without adequate gas and electricity networks, without storage capacity, there will not be a single market. Also, if one wants to guarantee solidarity between member states to provide against a harsh winter, then transport networks are needed. Finally, he said, if one wants to develop renewables at reasonable cost, then an integrated network for carrying all the energy to end-users is needed. He also underlined the obvious convergence between ICT and energy network infrastructure, with the development of intelligent electricity networks. Europe, Oettinger went on to say, needs common norms, cross-border routes and a pan-European infrastructure linking it to neighbouring third countries, as well as a process of expedited authorisations. He also called for adequate public co-funding of infrastructures that cannot be financed by the market alone due to lesser commercial viability, although they are necessary for breaking the isolation of energy islands. He stressed that one should base oneself on the principle of added value for all, and called on the capitals to support the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The Estonian prime minister, Andrus Ansip, concluded by saying that the €50 billion represents only a very modest proposal to complete all the integrated networks. Reducing the CEF budget, he said, is not in anyone's interest. (MD/IL/EH/transl.jl)