Brussels, 08/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) has an envelope of €29.3 billion to improve the transport, telecommunications and energy networks and it is becoming increasingly tangible. The Parliamentary committees for transport (TRAN) and industry (ITRE) adopted the regulation on Monday 7 October for this new instrument. A vote is expected to be confirmed in this sense at the plenary session at the end of this month.
The mechanism will be applied from 1 January next when the EU's financial programming for the 2014-2020 period begins. Transport projects will be the main beneficiary of this funding to the tune of €23.17 billion, with €10 billion coming from Cohesion Funds. Projects with high degrees of added European value will be prioritised, and which improve cross-border connections and help reduce bottlenecks.
€5.12 billion will go to projects that modernise the energy infrastructure and help secure supply. A hundred or so electricity projects are expected, with five for gas.
€1 billion will go to telecommunications, especially broadband projects. (MD/transl.fl)