On 26 March, the European Commission adopted the decision to endorse the first tranche of EUR 12 Billion for the development of TEN – T projects. This budget will increase key projects, part of the nine corridors of the TEN – T core network, and will support the development of the transport strategy objectives such as interoperability, promotion of intermodality and stimulation of innovation. The investment is necessary to reduce the discrepancy in the infrastructure of the East and West of the European Union.
Thus, the Commission adopted the first work programmes: a multiannual work programme covering large and long-term projects, comprising a total budget of EUR 11 Billion and an annual work programme for 2014 which approaches smaller and less complex projects with a budget of EUR 1 Billion. The call for project proposals will be published before September 1, 2014
Funds are thus the first to be allocated through the Connecting Europe Facility governing the EU funding for infrastructure projects in terms of transport, telecommunications and energy in 2014-2020.
The two above mentioned work programmes, amounting to EUR 12 Billion, have established that the main priorities include eliminating missing connections in the cross-border points between EU states and eliminating major bottlenecks, especially the bottlenecks on the new corridors of the TEN – T core network.
The funding priorities equally include the projects such as interoperability promotion to overcome technological barriers at national borders, especially in the railway sector; multimodality consolidation, in order to facilitate unitary chains of passenger and freight transport (including freight transport services) as well as the full integration of urban hubs in the TEN – T network and especially in the corridors of the core network and the stimulation of innovative approaches in accordance with future technological trends (also covering the indispensable “communication” between infrastructure and vehicles).
A strong emphasis is also put on the EU transport legislation and policy in areas such as the strategy for railway or sea transport, “the clean energy for transport”, the urban mobility and safety and telematics applications for all modes of transport.
Through the new European Union policy on infrastructure, the EU funding for transport has tripled, reaching EUR 26 Billion for 2014-2020. At the same time, the transport funding is redirected to a new strictly defined core network. A major innovation of the new TEN-T directions consists in introducing in the core network the nine corridors for implementation. Their role is to contribute in the development of the core network. Each corridor must include three modes of transport, three member states and two cross-border sections.
These corridors are not virtually new, they shape and complete the core network within the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). The new core network will connect 94 main European ports to railway and road links, 38 major airports with railway links to major cities, 15 000 km of railway lines modernised for high-speed traffic, 35 cross-border projects aiming to reduce bottlenecks.
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