Call: Core Network Rail – works or mixed

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport is the funding instrument to realise European transport infrastructure policy. It aims at supporting investments in building new transport infrastructure in Europe or rehabilitating and upgrading the existing one.

Trans-European Networks for Transport (TEN-T) policy objectives foresee:

• completion by 2030 of the Core Network, structured around nine multimodal Core Network Corridors.
• completion by 2050 of the Comprehensive Network in order to facilitate accessibility to all European regions

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 (link), 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.

Objective:

The objective is to develop rail tranport infrastructure projects on the Core Network of the TEN-T.

Scope:

Works, with the possibility to include studies, related to:

• construction/upgrading of cross-border and missing links;
• capacity and performance upgrade of existing lines, including removal of level-crossings and upgrades necessary for 740 meters long trains and upgrades necessary to facilitate international rail passenger and freight transport;
• capacity increase in nodes, including as regards a better articulation of long-distance and local traffic;
• interconnections between rail and other modes of transport, in particular inland waterway and maritime transport and actions aimed at the integration of the rail and air networks to make the feeder network for long-haul flights more sustainable. Actions located exclusively within the perimeter of inland ports and maritime ports shall be submitted under those priorities respectively;
• connections of freight terminals to the TEN-T Network;
• electrification of line tracks and upgrade of electrification systems.

Support will not be given to railway stations, except for railway infrastructure components. If the Action includes such components, they shall be presented as a separate work package. Neither shall support be given to activities related to the Class B systems. Actions shall comply with the provisions of Directive 2016/797 on the interoperability of the rail system (Directive 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the interoperability of the rail system within the European Union which replaces Directive 2008/57/EC as of 31 October 2020 (OJ L 138, 26.5.2016, p. 44)) and with the related Technical Specifications for Interoperability. Where relevant, Actions shall also be compatible with the alignment of operating procedures accross borders in order to ensure the most effective use of the supported infrastructure.

In accordance with Article 9(2)(a)(i) of the CEF Regulation, Actions addressing the Core Network may include related elements on the Comprehensive Network, when necessary to optimize the investment. These elements may form up to 10% of the total eligible costs of the Action and shall be presented as a separate work package.

Facilities and infrastructure supported under CEF must be accessible for use by all operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

The foreseen duration of the action should be 4-5 years maximum.

• one or more EU Member States 
• by international organisations, joint undertakings, or public or private undertakings or bodies established in Member States  (with the agreement of the Member States concerned).

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • third countries associated to the CEF.

Specific cases:

• Entities from other countries are exceptionally eligible for projects of common interest in the field of transport, energyand digital and for cross-border projects in the field of renewable energy, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action.
• Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legalpersonality separate from that of the natural person).
• International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
• Entities without legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guaranteesfor the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
• EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.

Proposal page limits and layout:

• Part A to be filled in directly online  (administrative information, summarised budget, call-specific questions, etc.)
• Part B to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system
• mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
  • detailed budget table per WP (template available in the Submission System)
  • activity reports of last year
  • list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years) (template available in Part B)
  • timetable/Gantt chart
  • agreement by the concerned Member States (letters of support)
  • environmental compliance file
  • simplified cost-benefit analysis (CBA) if the project is supported with financing of a non-Implementing Partner financial institution.

The available call budget for Projects on the Core Network – General envelope (CEF-T-2021-COREGEN) is EUR 1,620,000,000.

In order to ensure efficiency in EU funding interventions, applicants are strongly encouraged to submit applications for projects with a total requested EU contribution to the eligible costs of no less than EUR 1,000,000. Where possible, related projects should be grouped and submitted as one proposal.

The costs will be reimbursed at the funding rates fixed in the Grant Agreement (50% for the costs of studies, 70% for the costs of works in outermost regions (not applicable for inland waterways), 50% for the other costs categories (‘project funding rate’) for Actions supporting inland waterways and 30% for the other costs categories (‘project funding rate’) for Actions supporting the other transport modes.

You can apply for a higher project funding rate if your project concerns:

• cross-border links: 50% (not applicable for roads and maritime ports)
• cross-border links with integrated management: 55% (not applicable for roads and maritime ports)
• railway links between cohesion countries: 85%
• railway links between cohesion countries with integrated management: 90%