EU launches a Blending Facility to support sustainable transport projects
The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) launched today a call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Blending Facility. It seeks to promote the participation of private sector investors and financial institutions in projects contributing to the environmental sustainability and efficiency of transport in Europe.
€198 million are made available in the form of grants to support Blending Operations. These operations are a combination of grants and/or financial instruments from the EU budget and financing from Implementing Partners (via a loan, debt, equity or any other repayable form of support). A virtual information day on the rolling call will take place on 5 December 2019.
What projects are eligible for funding?
The rolling call for proposals supports two priorities of the CEF Transport multi-annual work programme for 2014-2020, with an indicative budget of €99 million each:
- Deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)
- Alternative fuels for transport
This innovative blending mechanism has been devised to make sure that projects selected for grant support are bankable with a proven maturity.
Who can apply?
Two types of applicants can submit their proposal:
- One or more Member States
- With the agreement of the Member State(s) concerned, international organisations, joint undertakings, or public or private undertakings or bodies established in an EU Member State supported by financing from an Implementing Partner.
How to apply?
Project promoters must engage first with an Implementing Partner (public financial institutions), which performs an initial screening of each project to be potentially supported by financing from the Implementing Partner, in order to be included in the CEF Transport Blending Facility’s Project Pipeline.
The Implementing Partner will then engage with the project promoter to conduct the necessary appraisal to obtain the approval of the Implementing Partner’s governing bodies for the project, included in the CEF Transport Blending Facility’s Project Pipeline. The appraisal results are summarised in the Project Report and Eligibility Check List, which will become part of the application file.
In practice, each cut-off date has two deadlines: one for the Applicant (for the grant application) and a month later one for the Implementing Partner (for the application file).
Background
The CEF Transport programme is the key EU funding instrument for the development of high performing, sustainable and interconnected Trans-European transport networks (TEN-T). The Programme co-finances projects that enhance multimodality, improve infrastructure and advance innovation and new technologies.
The CEF programme has a grant budget of €23.4 billion for the transport sector. Of this amount, €11.3 billion is reserved for projects in the Member States eligible for the Cohesion Fund. Since 2014, 794 projects have been supported through CEF with around €22.12 billion in EU funding.
INEA will manage the promotion and evaluation of the call and supervise the implementation of projects.
For more information
