EU invests €2.8 billion in 94 transport projects across Europe, including Solidarity Lanes with Ukraine
The EU will strengthen the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes with projects to improve rail connectivity and border crossing points between Slovakia and Ukraine, and between Romania and Moldova.
New funding was announced on 3 July, as the European Commission selected 94 transport projects that will receive nearly €2.8 billion in EU grants under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). Rail transport will receive the largest share of the funding – 77% of the total – with investments directed towards major infrastructure upgrades across the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) core and extended networks.
As part of this funding, the EU will help Ukraine adopt the standard EU railway gauge, facilitating seamless cross-border rail traffic and boosting regional trade.
One of the projects, with a budget of €76 million, concerns the modernisation of the railway line between the Poland / Ukraine border at Medyka/Mostyska and Lviv/Sknyliv. The main advantage of the project is to speed up external border checks on passenger and freight transport and improve the interoperability of the EU and Ukrainian railway systems.
Another project, worth around €33.8 million, concerns the works for the modernisation of the doubletrack line and a single track line between Iași in Romania and Ungheni in Moldova. The main benefit is reduced time required for trains between the two countries and thus an increased cross-border capacity for rail.
The CEF Transport programme for 2021-2027 has a total budget of €25.8 billion. It is available to fund projects in all EU Member States as well as in Ukraine and Moldova – two CEF associated countries. With the current selection, 95% of this budget has already been allocated.
Since its launch in 2014, the Connecting Europe Facility supported 1861 projects (including the current selection of 94 projects) with a total of €47.34 billion in the transport sector.
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