Will the Baltic region get a piece of the CEF?

On February 16th, 2016, the European Commission and the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) sounded the bell ending the second round of calls for proposals of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which attracted 427 projects worth €EUR 12.96 bn in requested EU funding.

The total available budget is €EUR 7.56 bn, meaning that not every proposal will make the final cut. The evaluation process, conducted with the assistance of external experts, begins in March and is expected to run its course by the end of July.

Two calls were launched – under the CEF-Transport-2015-Cohesion envelope – encompassing 140 proposals with a total value of €EUR 9.79 bn. The Cohesion Call includes key infrastructure projects in sustainable transport modes, which are among the proposals most sought after by the European Commission and is reserved for 15 Member States eligible for the Cohesion Fund, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The CEF-Transport-2015-General envelope – encompasses 287 proposals with a total value of €EUR 3.17 bn.

This bodes well for a number of project proposals from the Baltic region, among them proposals from Baltic ports, linked to the Motorways of the Sea programme, featuring projects focusing on port infrastructure, LNG and scrubber installations.

The EU Commisioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said - „I am glad that so many project promoters are eager to invest in efficient, intelligent and sustainable transportation. The Connecting Europe Facility may be the largest funding instrument ever dedicated to transport by the EU (…).”

It remains to be seen, how many projects from the Baltic ports will benefit from the available funding. Cohesion countries very often have priority over rail or road projects and ports from these countries have limited possibilities to apply for grants (up to 85 % of co-financing rate). This may limit the number of proposals within the Motorways of the Sea programme, where there must be at least two ports located in different EU countries. Many of these ports are from cohesion countries.

Bogdan Ołdakowski, BPO Secretary General said - „We are crossing our fingers for Baltic ports. A part of the challenge for ports from cohesion countries, also comprehensive ports, is that they have a limited possibility to apply for CEF funds, which is a serious problem for substantial parts of the Baltic ports. We will raise this issue in a discussion with the European Commission.”

Additional information can be found in the INEA newsroom.