Programme: Connecting Europe Facility

Programme	Connecting Europe Facility
Acronym	CEF
Type of Fund	Direct Management
Description of programme "Connecting Europe Facility"	The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level. It supports the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services. CEF investments fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone. The CEF benefits people across all Member States, as it makes travel easier and more sustainable, it enhances Europe’s energy security while enabling wider use of renewables, and it facilitates cross-border interaction between public administrations, businesses and citizens. In addition to grants, the CEF offers financial support to projects through innovative financial instruments such as guarantees and project bonds. These instruments create significant leverage in their use of EU budget and act as a catalyst to attract further funding from the private sector and other public sector actors.
Link	Link to Programme
Thematic Focus	Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Digitisation, ICT, Telecommunication, Employment & Labour Market, Green Technologies & Green Deal, Mobility & Transport/Traffic
EU Macro-Regions	Danube Region, Adriatic and Ionian Region, Alpine Region, Baltic Sea Region
Funding area	EU Member States Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) Candidate Countries Potential Candidate Countries EU Neighbourhood Policy Countries Iceland / Ísland Liechtenstein Norway / Norge
Origin of Applicant	EU Member States Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) Candidate Countries Potential Candidate Countries EU Neighbourhood Policy Countries Iceland / Ísland Liechtenstein Norway / Norge
Project Partner	No
Eligible applicants	Public Services, Federal State / Region / City / Municipality / Local Authority, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs (between 10 and 249 employees), Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees), Start Up Company, Enterprise (more than 250 employees or not defined), International Organization, National Government, Other, Association
Applicant details	Proposals shall be submitted by: 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).
Type of Funding	Grants
Contact Details	https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/contact-0_en

Subprogrammes of Connecting Europe Facility

Connecting Europe Facility for Transport

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.

Open Calls

Connecting Europe Facility for Energy

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Energy is the EU funding programme to implement the Trans-European Networks for Energy policy. It aims at supporting investments in building new cross-border energy infrastructure in Europe or rehabilitating and upgrading the existing one.

A forward-looking, modern, secure and smart energy infrastructure will be key in delivering the European Green Deal. The Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) framework will be a key enabler towards the Union’s decarbonisation objectives for 2030 and 2050 while contributing to sector and market integration, security of supply and competition.

The TEN-E policy is focused on linking the energy infrastructure of EU countries. To address the energy infrastructure needs at regional and European level, nine priority corridors and three priority thematic areas have been identified in the TEN-E strategy. The Connecting Europe Facility programme supports the implementation of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) in these priority corridors and thematic areas.

The three priority thematic areas, which relate to the entire EU, include smart grids deployment, electricity highways, and a cross-border carbon dioxide network.

Smart grids deployment: increase deployment of smart grids to help integrate renewable energy and allow consumers to better regulate their energy consumption

Electricity highways: construction of electricity highways – large grids that allow electricity to be transported over long distances across Europe (e.g. from wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas to storage facilities in Scandinavia and the Alps)

Cross-border carbon dioxide network: development of transport infrastructure for captured CO2 through dedicated thematic groups.

Connecting Europe Facility - Digital

The 2nd generation of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF-2 programme) “Digital” strand (2021-2027) aims to support and catalyse investments in digital connectivity infrastructures of common interest.

The programme has a total budget of € 2.065 billion, of which € 1.7 billion is managed by European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Actions foreseen to be supported under CEF-2 Digital include:

Deployment of/access to very high-capacity networks, including 5G systems, capable of providing Gigabit connectivity in areas where socio-economic drivers, such as schools, universities, hospitals, transport hubs, public administrations, etc., are located;
Uninterrupted coverage of 5G systems on all major transport paths, including the trans-European transport networks;
Deployment of new or significant upgrade of existing backbone networks including submarine cables, both within/between the EU Member States and third countries;
Implementation of digital connectivity infrastructures related to cross-border transport and energy projects and/or the support of operational digital platforms directly associated to these infrastructures.