Connecting Europe Facility - 2028-2034

Key points

The EESC:

1. welcomes the recognition of the need for investments, in particular the urgent need to strengthen the EU’s resilience and improve security. The Committee demands for an increase in CEF III funding to at least 100 billion euros;
2. considers it appropriate to include, in the next programming period, investments extending beyond the EU, through the expansion of TEN-T corridors to candidate countries;
3. emphasizes that in order to ensure territorial cohesion and full use of the single market, the programme should prioritise investments in regions with significant infrastructure gaps, support projects aimed at securing critical infrastructure and bottlenecks, in particular in cohesion recipient countries and regions bordering Russia and Belarus, which are openly hostile towards EU countries;
4. thinks that investments implemented within a single Member State should not be entirely excluded, where such investments meet the needs and objectives of the CEF and are significant for TEN-T and TEN-E;
5. proposes earmarking funds to enable the CEF project started to be completed, and specifying which projects will be given priority. The funding criteria should be linked to social and environmental criteria and ensure European added value;
6. demands to introduce procedures for mid-term and ex-post evaluation of expenditures implemented through the CEF as well as the monitoring rules for the CEF. Simplification of the application process and acceleration the disbursement of the funds in view to accelerate implementation of the investments are necessary.