Overview Total Budget: € 21,94 billion (€23.6 billion for Transport, €4.6 billion for Energy, and €0.5 billion for Telecom) Thematic Categories: Transport, Energy, Telecommunications / Building, Industry, Regional development, Traffic, Technologies Beneficiaries: Public Services, 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, Non-Profit Organizations, Academic institutions and research Centers Link: https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/connecting-europe-facility Level of Financing (Eu Co-Financing Rate): CEF financial support primarily takes the forms of: Grants (non-reimbursable investments from the EU budget) which are implemented through the competitive process of ‘calls for proposals’. Programme Support Actions, which are dedicated supporting measures to the administrations of the Member States, or bodies under their authority, to help them achieve overall TEN-T and CEF objectives, as well as studies and IT support to the CEF programme. The use of financial instruments under the CEF encompasses the CEF debt instrument and the CEF equity instrument. The objective of these instruments is to facilitate access to project and corporate financing of infrastructure projects in the transport, energy and broadband sectors, to overcome market failures and to create leverage effects with European Union funding. EU contributions to the innovative financial instruments. These instruments are developed together with entrusted financial institutions such as with the European Investment Bank (EIB) as an implementing partner of the Commission. They take the form of risk sharing arrangements and include guarantees, loans and project bonds. The CEF Debt Instrument, which has been put in place for three CEF sectors with the EIB, merges the predecessor instruments also aiming at supporting transport infrastructure projects, such as: the Loan Guarantee for TEN Transport the Marguerite Fund and the pilot phase of the Project Bond Initiative Transport Grants for studies, 50% of the eligible costs. Grants for works: for railway networks, and road networks in the case of Member States with no railway network established in their territory or in the case of a Member State, or part thereof, with an isolated network without long-distance rail freight transport: 20% of the eligible costs; the funding rate may be increased to a maximum of 30 % for actions addressing bottlenecks and to 40% for actions concerning cross-border sections and actions enhancing rail interoperability; for inland waterways: 20% of the eligible costs; the funding rate may be increased to a maximum of 40% for actions addressing bottlenecks and to a maximum of 40% for actions concerning cross- border sections; for inland transport, connections to and the development of multimodal logistics platforms including connections to inland and maritime ports and airports, as well as the development of ports: 20% of the eligible costs; for actions to reduce rail freight noise including by retrofitting existing rolling stock: 20% of the eligible costs up to a combined ceiling of 1% of the budgetary resources referred to in point (a) of Article 5(1); for better accessibility to transport infrastructure for disabled persons: 30% of the eligible cost of adaptation works, not exceeding in any case 10% of the total eligible cost of works; for actions supporting new technologies and innovation for all modes of transport: 20% of the eligible costs; for actions to support cross-border road sections: 10% of the eligible costs; Grants for telematic applications systems and services (20%-50%). Energy 50% of the eligible cost of studies and/or works. May be increased to 75% for actions with a high degree of regional or Union-wide security of supply, strengthen the solidarity of the Union or comprise highly innovative solutions. Telecommunications Actions in the field of generic services: 75% of the eligible costs. Horizontal actions including infrastructure mapping, twinning and technical assistance: 75% of the eligible costs. Standard Eligibility Conditions; Usually there are no specific consortium requirements for the calls but each call has specific requirements. Additional Information: Under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a funding framework to support key EU investments in transport (Trans-European Transport Networks, TEN-T), energy (Trans-European Energy Networks, TEN-E) and Broadband and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Investments needed to meet connectivity goals are very high in all three sectors covered. the EU added value of CEF resides in its capacity to: steer public and private finance towards EU policy objectives; enable key investments where the costs are borne at national/local level whereas the benefits are tangible on a European scale; accelerate the shift to a low-emission and digital society by the programme.
