Brussels, 01/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is preparing to make mass investments in infrastructure, with a first call for projects for the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) in September. The Twenty-Eight will be competing over a pot of more than €8 billion. A response to the crisis, albeit a little late in the day, which will be beneficial to the European economy.
In the week of 11 September, the European Commission will present its first call for projects for the TEN-T, to be funded out of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). A large initial slice of the new financial instrument (with an envelope of €26 billion) will be made available to fund infrastructure along the nine corridors of this network. There is talk of more than €8 billion on the table already, according to a European Commission source, which is more than was made available to the transport sector in the financial programming period 2007-2013.
The list of eligible projects, by country and by corridor, has already been announced, having been drawn up and approved by the European institutions in 2013. The member states will therefore be able to submit some of these projects in this first call. However, the selection, which will be overseen by the executive agency of the TEN-T, will select the best and most complete of these, and also those which are the best promoted by the member states on the basis of their “European added value”, the same source added. Competition among the member states could, therefore, be fierce.
As an envelope of €11 billion within the CEF comes from the cohesion fund, it is likely that some of the money made available in this call has already been earmarked for the cohesion countries. (MD)