European Commission publishes the first call for tender under the Connecting Europe Facility
On 11 September, the European Commission published the first call for tender under the Connecting Europe Facility and announced to make available €11.9 billion of EU funding to improve European transport connections, ESPO said in its press release.
The 2014 CEF Transport Calls for Proposals are the first calls under the CEF in the area of transport. CEF Transport is the successor of the TEN-T Programme.
The main objective of CEF Transport, as set out in the TEN-T Guidelines, is to help complete the TEN-T Core Network and its Corridors by 2030. A total budget of €26.2 billion has been allocated to co-fund TEN-T projects in the EU Member States for the period 2014-2020: more than three times the amount allocated to the predecessor TEN-T Programme (2007–2013). From this budget, €11.3 billion is reserved for projects in Member States eligible for the Cohesion Fund.
The funding will be concentrated along 9 major transport corridors which, taken together, will form a core transport network and act as the economic life-blood of the Single Market (see map attached). The funding will remove bottlenecks, revolutionise East West connections and streamline cross border transport operations for businesses and citizens throughout the EU.
Applicants have until 26th February 2015 to submit their bids. Ports are eligible to benefit from financial support under a number of headings.
The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), which is the successor of the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T EA), along with the European Commission, will hold an Info Day on 9-10 October 2014 to present the political priorities and content of each call.
