The European Commission has launched the 2018 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport call for proposals that opens co-financing possibilities for projects supporting the policy orientations of the Third Clean Mobility Package – transport digitalisation, road safety and multimodality. The call opened on 17 May and has a deadline of 24 October 2018.

The available budget for this specific sector is 450 million Euros. A budget of hundred million Euros is set aside for projects enhancing rail interoperability or European Rail Traffic Management Systems (ERTMS). Another 200 million Euros is allocated to projects developing safe and secure infrastructure, or for innovation and new technologies, including a focus on safety. Finally, 150 million Euros is available for projects involving Intelligent Transport Services for road (ITS), River Information Services (RIS) or connections to and development of multimodal logistics platforms.

CEF programme

The CEF Transport programme is the key EU funding instrument for the development of high performing, sustainable and interconnected Trans-European transport networks, with a focus on the nine Core Network Corridors (TEN-T Corridors). The programme co-finances projects that enhance multimodality, improve infrastructure and advance innovation and new technologies.

Under the current multi-annual financial framework (MFF 2014-2020), the CEF programme has a grant budget of 23.2 billion Euros for the transport sector as a whole. Of this amount, 11.3 billion Euros is reserved for projects in Member States eligible for the Cohesion Fund. Since 2014, 639 projects have been supported with around 22.1 billion Euros of funding. At least thirty billion Euros have been allocated to the CEF programme under the upcoming multi-annual financial framework (MFF 2020-2027). The final allocation per MFF-post will be announced on 6 June 2018.