European ports have only been able to obtain 4% of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) transport budget over the last three years. These are the main results from the Study ESPO launched in spring 2018 in preparation of the Connecting Europe facility II proposal which came out on 6 June 2018.
ESPO welcomed the CEF II proposal and appreciated the efforts that have been made to optimise and ensure the continuation of this important financial instrument for transport.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
However, it added that the investment needs of European ports over the next ten years amount to 48 billion EUR. For these investments, external funding is needed as the ports have only been able to obtain 4% of the CEF transport budget.
ESPO’s Secretary General Isabelle Ryckbost, mentioned:
Given their important role as nodes of transport, energy, industry and blue economy ports deserve more than the 4% share they obtained over the last three years. Concretely we believe that ports and the maritime dimension should be better recognised under the cross-border priority.
Due to the outcome of the ESPO study, ESPO formulated recommendations and suggestions to optimise the Commission proposal. Namely, ESPO asks the European Parliament and Council to:
- Ensure that an increased share of the CEF budget is accessible to ports, reflecting their essential role in the European Transport network;
- Recognise the cross-border nature of ports and the maritime cross-border dimension which has the potential to link a port not only with their neighbours but with all other maritime Member States;
- Re-integrate the currently pre-identified port and MoS projects in the Annex of pre-identified sections of the new proposal;
put more emphasis on the decarbonisation investments to be made; - Better define the military mobility budget share, which will receive 1 on 5 EUR of the CEF transport budget and to prioritise the transport policy priorities in defining the dual-use;
- Use the military mobility budget to enhance the resilience of Europe’s infrastructure and, in particular its port infrastructure, to cyber security threats and ensure that ports can play their vital role as part of the emergency supply chain;
- Exempt projects with a limited impact on the national transport network from Member State endorsement;
- Highlight the importance of the maritime connections of the EU with its neighbouring countries;
- Ensure optimal connectivity of Ireland to mainland Europe in the context of Brexit;
- Foresee a review mechanism following the review of the TEN-T guidelines in 2023 and the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.
The proposal is currently under discussion in the Parliament and the Council. The deadline for amendments is 13 September.
Below you can find EU’s Connecting Europe Facility report
