The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) joined the campaign of 29 European transport organisations, representing infrastructure managers, operators, and users in the maritime, inland waterways, railways and air sector, which urges the European Parliament and the Council to increase the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) budget in the upcoming review of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework.
“Efficient transport of people and goods are crucial to maintain the competitiveness of the EU economy. The economic growth and jobs of all European industries depend heavily on the well-functioning of the transport sector”, said ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven.
“That’s why we have to ensure the completion of the Trans-European Network for Transport by increasing EU budget for transport. Many high-quality projects are waiting for financing, projects that would indeed complete the modernisation of our transport infrastructure”, he concluded.
European citizens, customers and shippers require ever more safe, secure, reliable, efficient, green and intermodal mobility. This can be made possible only by modernising the transport sector.
- First, a new infrastructure needs to be built and in order to face the increasing demand for transport.
- Second, transport needs to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by digital technologies.
- Third, greener transport need to be invested. As part of the logistic chain, transport should be better, greener, cleaner and connected in an increasingly digital world.
The Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T) policy rightly aims to ensure a well-running transport infrastructure in Europe as it is essential to EU’s competitiveness and wealth. In order to make this plan reality, an increase in the budget for transport projects is needed. The current Connecting Europe Facility has been an effective mechanism in delivering European transport priorities thus far. The CEF grants have benefited many high-quality projects and have been a vital ingredient to complete the TEN-T network. The large oversubscription of the CEF calls shows that the needs are high and due to the limited budget very good projects have unfortunately not been selected. EU economy simply cannot afford not completing TEN-T.
Source: ECSA
