The European Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) voted this week to amend the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) guidelines - but budgets will stay the same.
MEPs largely voted to maintain the original nature of the Commissions' proposals and gave their support to a TEN-T policy which has a clear European perspective. And, the partly reassuring news for ports is that after plenty of speculation over whether budgets for the TEN-T project would be cut in the European budget for 2014-2020, no cuts are being made.
But at the same time budgets aren't increasing either. This means that no extra money will be available from the Connecting Europe facility (CEF) and that competition for the more mature infrastructure project funding will become more competitive.
Patrick Verhoeven, secretary general, European Sea Ports Organization (ESPO), said: “The co-funding rate for the development of ports and their hinterland connections was not increased and remains at 20% - this is a pity given the crucial role that seaports play for the entire EU transport system.”
However, Mr Verhoeven welcomed the news that one of the main project under the TEN-T umbrella - the Motorways of the Sea (MoS) project - is to have its co-funding rate increased to 30% in line with the Council’s view. This will give it a larger portion of the overall €31.7bn budget.
This he said should amount to better port infrastructure and hinterland connections developed in connection with the project.
