ESPO and 13 transport associations Joint Statement on shifting CEF money to EFSI

11 March 2015

Press release

Brussels, 11 March 2015

Associations warn against risks of shifting CEF money to EFSI

In view of this week’s Transport Council and the debate it will hold on the 2015 Annual Growth Survey and transport policy’s contribution to EU Competitiveness, growth and jobs, the undersigned associations wish to address the EU Transport Ministers to voice their concerns on the way the Union is tackling transport infrastructure financing and development.

Our associations would like to underline the importance of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to fund projects along the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). CEF and TEN-T are the tools of an ambitious and at the same time realistic infrastructure policy, which will contribute to achieving a better-connected Union, fostering the development of the solid transport network European industry needs in order to thrive.

We welcome the Commission’s ambition to attract more private investment to the transport sector, but are concerned that an over-optimistic attitude towards the deliverables of the soon-to-be-established European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) can be to the detriment of many infrastructure projects which are currently eligible for CEF funding but which would probably not be able to attract investment under EFSI.

The reallocation of a huge portion of the CEF budget (18.1% of the CEF transport grants budget in non-cohesion countries) as EFSI credit guarantee will put at risk many projects that have been identified as priorities of the TEN-T network.

As explained in the Interim Report by Mr Christophersen and Professors Bodewig and Secchi, the opportunities offered by the Investment Plan have a clear potential to benefit transport infrastructure projects where traffic is dense, on a relatively short segment, and highly predictable.

However, many port, rail and inland waterway projects present very different features. And yet they are necessary to build an efficient and interconnected, sustainable EU-wide transport network. Public grants will therefore remain of vital importance.

In order to make transport infrastructure projects more attractive to private investors, the Christophersen-Bodewig-Secchi report in many cases suggests blending financial 2

instruments and grants, i.e. funding the riskier or non-revenue generating parts of a project through grants to make the rest of the project more profitable for private investors.

The European transport sector requires indeed to use such blending of financial instruments and sufficiently attractive CEF grants. But this kind of construction is obviously only possible if the CEF grants budget still has sufficient means. Of the EUR 26.4bn originally foreseen for transport in the 2014-2020 financial period, EUR 12bn has already been spent through the 2014 CEF call.

For the sound development of the European transport sector, we hereby call upon all Transport Ministries to reflect on ways to avoid cuts to the CEF budget, as well as to formulate and submit to the attention of the Spring European Council alternative solutions for providing EFSI with an adequate credit guarantee.


The signatories: The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) brings together more than 70 European railway undertakings and infrastructure companies. CER represents the interests of its members towards the European institutions as well as other policy makers and transport actors. CER’s main focus is promoting the strengthening of rail as essential to the creation of a sustainable transport system which is efficient, effective and environmentally sound. For more information, see www.cer.be.

For further information, please contact: Libor.Lochman@cer.be.

The European Barge Union (EBU) represents the majority of the inland navigation freight and passenger carrying industry in Europe. Its members are the national associations of barge owners and barge operators as well as international associations in the field of inland navigation and related areas.

EBU’s main objective is to represent the interests of the inland shipping industry and Rivers-See shipping industry at a Pan-European level and to contribute to the development of a sustainable and efficient Pan-European transport system. "

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) is the trade association representing the national shipowners’ associations of the EU and Norway (close to 99% of the EEA fleet or about 20% of the world fleet). Our aim is to promote the interests of European shipping so that the industry can best serve European and international trade and commerce in a competitive free enterprise environment to the benefit of shippers and consumers and help formulate EU policy on critical maritime transport-related issues.

The European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP) brings together more than 200 inland ports and port authorities in 18 countries of the European Union, Switzerland and Ukraine. Since 1994, EFIP has been the voice of the inland ports in Europe. EFIP highlights and promotes the role of inland ports as multi-modal hubs. For more information, please contact: Kathrin.Obst@inlandports.be, www.inlandports.eu.

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