The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level. It supports the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services. CEF investments fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone.

CEF Transport focuses on cross-border projects and projects aiming at removing bottlenecks or bridging missing links in various sections of the Core Network and on the Comprehensive Network, as well as for horizontal priorities such as traffic management systems.  

CEF Transport also supports innovation in the transport system in order to improve the use of infrastructure, reduce the environmental impact of transport, enhance energy efficiency and increase safety.

In addition to grants, the CEF offers financial support to projects through innovative financial instruments such as guarantees and project bonds. These instruments create significant leverage in their use of EU budget and act as a catalyst to attract further funding from the private sector and other public sector actors.

Since January 2014, INEA is your gateway to funding under the CEF. INEA implements most of the CEF programme budget, in total €28.7 billion out of €30.4 billion (€23.7 billion for Transport, €4.6 billion for Energy, and €0.5 billion for Telecom).

Following the EU's investment in 140 key transport projects to jump-start the green recovery, as announced in July, the EU is currently contributing to five projects that aim at delivering safer and greener transport services. Among the selection are projects deploying cleaner busses with charging infrastructure in Paris and Barcelona.

The projects also involve constructing 255 new electric charging stations on Italian roads, and installing ERTMS, the European Rail Traffic Management System on 238 rail vehicles in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

The projects will be supported through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), supporting transport infrastructure and contributing to decarbonising transport as set out in the European Green Deal. These projects were selected through the CEF Blending Facility, allowing the leveraging of additional private financing for the projects, in addition to the EU's support. In total, CEF has now supported 932 projects, with €23.1 billion in total.

For information on how B2EU Consulting could support your organisation in developing a funding strategy and in unlocking different financing tools for your operation in the transport sector, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: info@b2eu-consulting.com