European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean gave an update on Thursday 8 December at the end of a conference organised by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the financing of ‘solidarity lanes’ and transport infrastructure to support trade flows from Ukraine and Moldova.
“The ‘lanes’ have become a vital part for the Ukrainian economy. We have done all we can to deploy them, but more needs to be done, with more investment in rolling stock, border scanners and transhipment equipment”, said Mrs Vălean.
The conference comes as the European Commission and several financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank announced on 11 November that almost €1 billion would be invested in ‘solidarity lanes’ with Ukraine (see EUROPE 13062/4).
“We have had discussions and I have asked the Polish, Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian Ministers to finalise the list of priority projects so that this list can be finalised before 18 January, when the call for projects under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) will be closed”, Mrs Vălean said.
For the moment, she detailed, projects representing 10% of the €600 million envelope dedicated to military mobility have been submitted. “I think we will have the same success rate for the CEF appeal”, she said. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)