EUROPE: An open letter signed by 45 European transport organisations had called for the future EU budget to include more funding for the sector, including an increase in the Connecting Europe Facility to at least €100bn. The letter says ‘only with strong and state-of-the-art transport infrastructure at its core, will Europe be able to ramp up its resilience and military preparedness, reinforce its industrial competitiveness and safeguard its supply chain sovereignty’ in the face of ‘rising geopolitical and geo-economic tensions as well as ongoing climate change’.
The February 19 letter with signatories including the Association of European Rail Rolling Stock Lessors, the Federation of European Train Drivers’ Unions, CER, EIM, ERFA, the European Transport Workers’ Federation, UIP, UIRR, UITP and UNIFE calls on the European Commission and member states to ‘act now to strengthen and update Europe’s infrastructure, address bottlenecks and missing links, optimise its connectivity and capacity, and reinforce its safety, resilience and preparedness for climate change adaptations’.
It says infrastructure is insufficiently adapted to civilian and military dual use, and ‘the current geopolitical landscape highlights the need to prepare for just-in-case on top of the just-in-time strategies, requiring redundancy and buffer capacity to ensure the continuation of the supply of goods and the movement of people to the benefit of Europe’s economy and society’.
The letter adds that projects with high societal added-value do not always generate the necessary financial returns, and so EU grants are necessary to support projects that support strategic objectives but face funding gaps.
It says the Connecting Europe Facility is a ‘highly successful instrument to support and prioritise investments of high European added value’, but ‘has been undermined by a structural and significant oversubscription of the calls in light of insufficient budget’.
The signatories say the transport sector ’stands ready to deliver, but cannot do so without adequate support’.
