On the occasion of the TEN-T days in Riga and at the eve of the Parliament vote on the Juncker plan, the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) and the European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP) call on the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to give priority to transport and especially port projects, when assessing the investment projects.
To fully play their role in Europe’s transport Infrastructure plan, huge investments are needed for port infrastructure and infrastructure linking the ports with the corridors. Out of the 700 projects submitted under the last TEN-T call, 100 concern the port sector.
Based on the final reports of the nine corridors, there is already more than 40 billion EUR needed to realize the sea port infrastructure projects only.
‘It is clear that the remaining CEF envelope will not be able at all to address the needs identified, certainly not now that the grant envelope has been reduced by 2.2 billion as a result of the transfer to the Juncker plan. As for the Juncker plan, ESPO and EFIP are concerned that the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) may not take into consideration the important infrastructure investments that the port sector needs. In fact, the EFSI will not follow the TEN-T priorities for funding of transport infrastructure and the prioritisation as defined in the Corridor approach,’ European Federation of Inland Ports says in a press release.
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