Brenner Pass – Photo by Ilse on Unsplash
(BRUSSELS) – 107 transport projects are to receive over EUR 6 bn in EU grants from the Connecting Europe instrument for strategic investment in transport infrastructure, the Commission announced Thursday.
Over 80 per cent of the funding will support projects that deliver a more efficient, greener, and smarter network of railways, inland waterways and maritime routes along the trans-European transport (TEN-T) network. Projects will in addition bolster the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes, set up to facilitate Ukraine’s exports and imports.
The 107 projects were selected from a total of 353 submitted in response to the call for proposals, published in 2022. The EU funding will take the form of grants, which will be used to co-finance total project costs.
Major cross-border rail connections along the TEN-T core network have been also prioritised for funding. These include notably the Brenner Base tunnel (linking Italy and Austria), Rail Baltica (connecting the three Baltic States and Poland with the rest of Europe), as well as the cross-border section between Germany and the Netherlands (EmmerichOberhausen), among others.
Maritime ports in Ireland, Greece, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland will receive funding for developing on-shore power supply to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from moored vessels.
To help make inland waterway transport future-proof, infrastructure along the Seine-Scheldt cross-border waterways between France and Belgium will be modernised. Inland ports on the Danube and the Rhine basins, such as Vienna and Andernach, will also receive an upgrade.
To further increase the safety and interoperability of EU rail transport, the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) will be installed on trains and railway lines in Czechia, Denmark, Germany, France, Austria and Slovakia. On roads, several EU Member States will deploy Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS), in particular cooperative ITS (C-ITS) for safer and more efficient transport. Several Member States will get support to European air traffic management projects, with a view to increasing efficiency in air transport and creating a Single European Sky.
