OREANDA-NEWS  Today, EU Member States approved the Commission's proposal to invest €22.1 million in seven actions that will help develop sustainable and efficient transport and energy infrastructure. They will receive funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), one of the key funding instruments of the EU's Energy Union strategy to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level.

Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said:

European Transport still depends on oil for 94% of its energy needs. That is why the EU is investing in seven projects to speed up the deployment of alternative energy sources, with a special focus on electrification and multimodal transport.

Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Ca?ete added:

Enabling synergies between the transport and energy sectors will enhance the effectiveness of EU funding and will contribute to the further integration of the internal energy market. The successful conclusion of the first CEF synergy call is yet another milestone in the achievement of our long-term decarbonisation objectives.

Four of the selected actions refer to the transport priorities 'motorways of the sea', 'maritime ports' and 'multimodal transport modes' with emphasis on the gas sector (EU funding of €8.8 million), two are in the electricity sector addressing roads and multimodal transport modes (EU funding of €12.3 million) and one relates to smart grids, focusing on railway transport (EU funding of €1 million). The EU's financial contribution for the selected actions is 60% of the eligible costs, which includes the 10% bonus for synergies between the two sectors. Till 2020, the EU’s Innovation & Networks Executive Agency will implement most of the CEF programme budget, in total €27.4 billion out of €30.4 billion (€22.4 billion for Transport, €4.7 billion for Energy, and €0.3 billion for Telecoms).