30 European transport organisations, representing infrastructure managers, operators, users and equipment suppliers in the maritime, inland waterways, railways, road, cycling and air sectors, call on the European Parliament and the Council to approve the Commission proposal for the review of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework. The proposal foresees an increase of 1.4 billion euro for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) budget. The transport sector warns that this cannot be considered sufficient to complete the Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T). Nonetheless, the current proposal would enhance the role of transport as an enabler of economic growth and job creation, which at moment employs 20 million people (10% of total EU employment).

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the financial lifeline of the TEN-T network. The CEF total budget was 31 billion euros (2.8% of the overall MFF) but finally the sector is now left only with 2 billion euro until 2020. Due to an insufficient EU budget for transport and a significant reduction in national public investments, a high number of high-quality projects in the transport sector have been and will be rejected.

European citizens and customers require safer, ever more secure, reliable, efficient, green, multimodal and smart mobility but also better connectivity between nodes and modes of transport. This can be made possible by modernising the transport sector and completing TEN-T. The TEN-T completion will create 10 million additional jobs and lead to 1.8% GDP growth by 2030. The Commission and the Member States estimate that the development of the TEN-T network during the period 2014–2020 would require about 500 billion EUR of investments. These huge investment requirements in the transport sector should be taken into account by the current review of the MFF and by the future EU budget 2021-2027, in view of the review of the TEN-T Core Network implementation by 31st December 2023.

We, providers of transport and its users, are ready to successfully address these challenges but this requires a predictable and stable regulatory framework for investment and funding. Many high-quality projects are already benefiting from co-financing under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) calls and from financial blending programmes, but many other projects that are essential to the completion of TEN-T are still in the pipeline.

Completing the TEN-T network will provide Europe with a smart, overarching and climate-friendly infrastructure plan – fully in line with the COP21 requirements. We, transport sector’s representatives, are fully committed to make that plan a reality and we need the necessary means to achieve it. There is not a moment to lose if we want to preserve and boost the competitiveness of European economy.
 

For more information, have a look at our campaign !