The European Union is investing €6.2bn in sustainable, safe and efficient transport infrastructure.

The European Commission has selected 107 transport infrastructure projects to receive over €6bn in EU grants from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU’s instrument for strategic investment in transport infrastructure.

Over 80% of the funding will support projects that deliver a more efficient, greener and smarter network of railways, inland waterways and maritime routes along the trans-European transport (Ten-T) network. Projects will in addition bolster the EU-Ukraine solidarity lanes, set up to facilitate Ukraine’s exports and imports.

Major cross-border rail connections along the Ten-T core network have also been prioritised for funding. These include the Brenner Base tunnel linking Italy and Austria, Rail Baltica connecting the three Baltic states and Poland with the rest of Europe, and the cross-border section between Germany and the Netherlands, from Emmerich to Oberhausen.

Maritime ports in Ireland, Greece, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Poland will receive funding for developing on-shore power supplies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from moored vessels.

To help make inland waterway transport future-proof, infrastructure along the Seine-Scheldt cross-border waterways between France and Belgium will be modernised. Inland ports on the Danube and the Rhine basins, such as Vienna and Andernach, will also receive an upgrade.

To increase the safety and interoperability of EU rail transport, the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) will be installed on trains and railway lines in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Austria and Slovakia.

On roads, several EU member states will deploy intelligent transport systems (ITS), in particular cooperative ITS (C-ITS), for safer and more efficient transport.

Several member states will get support for European air traffic management projects, with a view to increasing efficiency in air transport and creating a single European sky.

“We are allocating €6.2bn to projects across Europe that will take us closer to completing the Ten-T, the backbone of the EU’s economy,” said Adina Valean, commissioner for transport. “I am particularly happy that €250m will improve cross-border connections between Ukraine, Moldova and their EU neighbours Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. These projects will make transporting goods between the EU and Ukraine easier, reinforcing the solidarity lanes.

The 107 projects were selected from 353 submitted in response to the call for proposals, published in 2022.

EU funding will take the form of grants, which will be used to co-finance total project costs.

Under the CEF Transport programme for 2021-2027, €25.8bn is available for grants to co-fund Ten-T projects in the EU member states. Since 2014, CEF has supported almost 1300 projects with a total of €29.4bn in the transport sector, excluding this recent proposed selection.

Further financing opportunities are available under CEF Transport, with the 2023 call for military mobility open until September and the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility calls open until November. The next CEF Transport calls for proposals will be launched towards the end of September.