43 European transport organisations, representing the key spectrum of Europe’s transport network, are again joining forces in a campaign to urge the Council and the European Parliament to increase the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) budget for transport in the upcoming review of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework.
The transport sector is of strategic importance in responding to Europe’s geostrategic, environmental and capacity challenges. Recent and ongoing crises have proven once again that only with a strong, adaptable and innovative transport sector at its core, Europe will be able to respond effectively to massive disruptions and safeguard its supply chain sovereignty. If Europe is to strengthen its resilience, be a leader in the shift to net-zero and finally complete the Trans-European Transport Network, it must translate its words into deeds and reflect these ambitions in the new EU budget for transport.
The massive oversubscriptions of the current CEF transport budget underline once again that the ambitions and challenges of the transport sector are high, yet are not met with the necessary EU support.
Cities and regions need additional support to implement innovations that enable multi-modal solutions that respond to the challenges they have: road safety, air pollution or congestion.
EIT Urban Mobility fosters a vibrant mobility ecosystem of cities, research institutions, industries, and startups. We call for enhanced investment in multimodality and innovation to elevate new and market ready solutions to wide scale deployment. EU grants play a key role in closing the initial investment gap for pioneering transport ventures that are rich in innovation and offer substantial eco-societal benefits” – Maria Tsavachidis, CEO of EIT Urban Mobility.
The take-away for European leaders and policymakers should be clear: this is the moment for Europe to reverse the trend of continued underfunding of the transport sector and set the bar high. A strong CEF instrument for transport is the best guarantee to deliver high EU added value, foster a level playing field across Europe and enable no regret investments.
The leaflet of the transport campaign for the review of the next EU budget is attached and available here.
