Trans-European networks: rules for granting financial aid

PURPOSE: To increase EU financial aid in the field of trans-European networks. CONTENT: General rules for the granting of Community financial aid in the field of trans-European networks were laid out in 1995 and amended in 1999 in line with a five yearly review. The Commission is now seeking a technical modification to these guidelines to reflect current policy priorities in the field of EU traffic growth. The 1999 revision of the guidelines allowed for the possibility of increasing the level of Community support from 10% to 20% for projects concerning satellite position and navigation systems from 1 January 2003. It did not, in spite of Commission recommendations, increase the financial contributions by the same amount for total investment costs for transport projects relating to more than one Member State. The increase in congested traffic on the TEN-T - in particular heavy lorry traffic - have rendered the current capacity of the road and rail infrastructure in the EU as well as the in-land waterways, far from complete. The Commission therefore feels it necessary to redefine the financial guidelines of the Regulation 1655/1999/EC to accommodate these short comings. The proposed changes would allow for an increase of Community support of up to 20% of the total investment costs for projects concerning cross-border bottlenecks and projects at borders with candidate countries which contribute strongly to the improvement of the Trans-European network. Specifically, those projects able to benefit from the increase would be: - projects which concern cross-border rail bottle necks and/or missing links located in areas where natural barriers represent obstacles to the free circulation of goods and passengers and which strongly contribute to the reduction of imbalance between modes of transport; and - other projects which concern bottlenecks at borders with candidate countries.�