The EU is supporting with EUR 616 million a total of 35 projects that will help deliver key infrastructure investments for dual civil/defence use, which is crucial in light of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The projects will also help strengthening the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes. The projects have been selected among those submitted under the second Military Mobility call for proposals issued under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme, the funding instrument for strategic investments in transport infrastructure in the European Union.
EU Commissioner for Transport Adina-Ioana Vălean said: “The results of our second call on military mobility under Connecting Europe Facility reflect the need of the European Union’s Member States to improve the dual use of our transport system. It was a highly competitive and oversubscribed call, with winning projects in 17 countries. I am pleased that some of the projects in Germany, Romania and Poland directly address improving the infrastructure on the Solidarity Lanes, our corridors used for Ukraine’s imports and exports.”
Her comments were echoed by the Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), Dirk Beckers, who stated: “With this new batch of projects co-financed under the 2022 CEF Military Mobility call we are clearly accelerating our support to transport infrastructure improvements across the EU that will contribute to the security of our continent for decades to come.”
This second Military Mobility call, which was opened on 12 May 2022 and closed on 29 September 2022 aims to co-fund projects that will support the adaptation of transport infrastructure to civil and military mobility needs within the EU by making it suitable for civilian and defence dual-use. The call is in line with the revised Action Plan on Military Mobility and aims at adjusting sections of the TEN-T network to the technical requirements on dimensions and capacity to address both civilian and defence needs.
Examples of projects selected for funding include the upgrade of railway infrastructure to allow for an increase of capacity for freight, the upgrade of road and rail on EU-Ukraine Solidarity lines and the enhancement of dual-use capacity of ports and airports.
Given Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Commission decided to increase significantly the indicative budget that was made available for this call from EUR 330 million to over EUR 616 million.
Background
Under the CEF Transport programme for the period 2021-2027, EUR 25.8 billion are available for grants to co-fund TEN-T projects in the EU Member States. Since 2014, CEF has supported over 1,300 projects for a total amount of more than EUR 29 billion in the transport sector.
To enhance military mobility across EU, a budget of EUR 1.69 billion is available under CEF between 2021-2027. Under the first call for proposals in 2021, 22 projects worth EUR 339 million were selected for funding and are now being implemented across the EU.
The EU’s financial contribution will take the form of grants co-financing the total estimated project costs.
Next steps
Following the EU Member States’ approval of the selected projects on 20 December, the Commission will adopt the financing decision shortly. CINEA will thereafter sign grant agreements with the project beneficiaries of the successful projects.
Please note that the results are provisional and will only become definitive once the European Commission adopts the corresponding award decision.
Source: European Commission I European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (https://bit.ly/3VofkGy)