At a conference organised at the beginning of October in Brussels, business leaders and policy-makers supported the creation of a Connecting Europe Facility as proposed by the European Commission for the European Union’s new financing period 2014-2020.
The programme which amounts to EUR 50 Billion could become a key instrument for infrastructure investments, to ensure the smooth functioning of the Single Market and to boost sustainable growth across the European Union.
In June 2011, the Commission proposed the multiannual financial framework, and in October 2011 it tabled the draft regulation for the “Connecting Europe Facility” (CEF). One year later (June 2012), the European Council agreed on the Compact for Growth and Job, which includes the removal of barriers in the Single Market and which refers explicitly to those sectors that are at the heart of the Connecting Europe Facility: transport, energy and internet. The European Council also agreed on the immediate launch of pilot project bonds. “We need an ambitious Connecting Europe Facility to invest in Europe’s future growth and boost job creation. Too often, citizens and businesses are blocked by incomplete, inefficient or simply non-existent infrastructure networks. The “Connecting Europe Facility” provides a European solution to a European problem”, declared the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, in the conference dedicated to CEF, attended by representatives of the European Union, of some companies and organisations operating in the fields aimed at by this programme.
Participants agreed that, in the absence of the financing programme, many infrastructure investment projects would not happen if dealt with purely at national level. This is particularly true in the on-going crisis, which hampers for example bank lending for infrastructure investment. Most participants expect significant private investments thanks to innovative financial instruments linked to the Connecting Europe Facility, like project bonds, and the longer term orientations and planning security it provides.
In order to answer the mobility requirements, at the EU level the transport infrastructure needs investments amounting to EUR 500 Billion until 2020 for projects whose purpose is the completion of the trans-European network, and on the long run, by 2030, it is necessary that EUR 1.5 Trillion will be granted.
“Since it is obvious that the available public money will not be enough, we need to look for a longer-term source of investment, which could be the private sector. This is where the EU can act, by helping to generate the large amounts of infrastructure investment that we need – with the CEF. We are confident that the EU’s strong track record in funding transport projects will help generate some impressive leveraged cash input from the private sector: the EUR 31.7 Billion proposed for transport is expected to generate about EUR 140-150 Billion of investments”, declared the European Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas.
He mentioned that Rail Baltica represents one of the projects important for the European network, “which I believe can only be successfully built thanks to CEF funding”. It performs the transport connection between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland, and it provides ferry-boat railway services, it offers access to Poland and the rest of Europe.
Apart from this project, the Canal Seine-Nord project, which connects France’s networks to the Belgian, Dutch and German networks, could be executed within CEF, as well as the main ports in the Northern part; other projects mentioned by the commissioner are Lyon–Turin and Fehmarn Belt links and the Brenner Tunnel.
According to EU estimates, infrastructure investments create 18,000 jobs for USD 1 Billion invested. The trans-European infrastructure may be a factor of growth for the European economy, beyond the sectors co-vered by the Connecting Europe Facility.
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