The European Commission has selected 107 transport infrastructure projects to receive over €6bn in EU grants from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU's instrument for strategic investment in transport infrastructure.
More than 80% 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.
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 (Emmerich–Oberhausen), among others.
Maritime ports in Cork and Rosslare, 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.
Make inland waterway transport future-proof
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.