Call: Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Facility - Works - LNG

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 support the deployment of Alternative Fuel supply infrastructure for waterborne transport by supporting low-emission solutions in the transition phase towards decarbonising maritime and inland waterway transport along the TEN-T network.

Scope:

The activities that can be funded under this call are relating to the deployment of Alternative fuel supply networks as defined in section 6.2.2 of the multiannual work programme.

The infrastructure shall be deployed in accordance with Directive 2014/94/EU and with Regulation 1315/2013 in line with the requirements listed in the call document:

Actions supporting LNG bunkering for TEN-T maritime and inland ports as a transitional solution and with priority to actions that include the immediate or progressive uptake of bio-LNG will be funded.

• Refuelling stations supplying inland waterway and maritime vessels
  • Infrastructure
    • supplying infrastructure for TEN-T maritime and inland vessels on TEN-T inland waterway and maritime ports
    • including storage facilities for transport sector only
    • including bunkering vessels
  • Location
    • in TEN-T inland waterway and maritime ports areas

LNG refuelling infrastructure is supported only as a transitional solution and priority will be given to actions demonstrating a progressive uptake of bio-LNG.

Costs related to vessels will be eligible in the case of inland waterway and short sea shipping, if an initial number of vessels is needed to kick-start the use of the supported refuelling infrastructure. In such case, the eligible cost shall be limited to the difference of cost between a fossil-fuel vessel and the zero-emission vessel(s) proposed.

• 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
  • financing approval letter (consisting of a transmittal letter certifying the approval of the financing by the financial institution’s governing bodies in line with its own rules, policies and procedures, and the project summary sheet)
  • simplified cost-benefit analysis (CBA) if the project is supported with financing of a non-Implementing Partner financial institution.

The available call budget for Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility – Cohesion envelope (CEF-T-2021-AFIFCOEN) is EUR 1,200,000,000. (EUR 400,000,000 per year)

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 rate fixed in the Grant Agreement with a maximum of 10% for LNG infrastructure.
For vessels and port vehicles & equipment, the percentage is applied to the difference in costs between a fossil-fuel vessel/vehicle/equipment and the zero-emission vessels/vehicle/equipment as regards the propulsion system.