Call: Core Network Roads, rail-road terminals and multimodal logistics platforms – studies (Cohesion Countries)

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 road infrastructure projects, rail-road terminals and multimodal logistics platforms on the Core Network of the TEN-T.

Scope:

Studies on roads, rail-road terminals and multimodal logistics platforms related to:

• pre-identified road links as stipulated in Section 1 of Part III of the Annex of the CEF Regulation, in particular cross-border links on the Core Network;
• components of the Core road Networks located in Member States which do not have a land border with another Member State as stipulated in Section 3 of Part III of the Annex of the CEF Regulation;
• improving road connections to maritime and inland ports and rail-road terminals as listed in Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 as long as the actions do not aim at increasing road transport capacity, but address a significant bottleneck;
• construction or upgrade of rail-road terminals as listed in Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013, combined transport transhipment points and other publicly accessible multimodal logistics platforms located on the TEN-T Network, including connecting or siding tracks, power connections, safe and secure truck waiting areas, adaptations for 740 m train length, clean transhipment equipment for intermodal loading units, including specific equipment for rolling motorways and the transportation of semi-trailers by rail, and ICT equipment and applications.

Support will not be given to buildings, storage and warehouse facilities. Actions addressing roads shall be compliant with Directive (EU) 2019/1936 (Directive 2019/1936 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 amending Directive 2008/96/EC on road infrastructure safety management (OJ L 305, 26.11.2019, p. 1)) and Directive (EU) 2004/54/EC (Directive 2004/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network (OJ L 167, 30.4.2004, p. 39–91)).

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 2-3 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 Member States eligible for funding from the Cohesion Fund

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 – Cohesion envelope (CEF-T-2021-CORECOEN) is EUR 2,000,000,000.

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 grant will be a budget-based actual cost grant. This means that it will reimburse ONLY certain types of costs (eligible costs) and costs that were actually incurred for your project (NOT the budgeted costs).

The costs will be reimbursed at the funding rate fixed in the Grant Agreement (maximum 85%).

You can apply for a higher project funding rate (maximum 90 %), if your project concerns cross-border links with integrated management.