Connecting Europe Facility 2021-2027 - Transport
2. Call for Alternative fuels infrastructure Facilitiy - transport (AFIF II) for the period 2024-2025
3. Call for proposal under Connecting Europe Facility – Transport 2024
The objective of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is to accelerate investments in trans-European networks in the transport, energy, and telecommunications sectors, facilitating cross-border connections, enhancing economic, social, and territorial cohesion, and contributing to a more competitive and sustainable social market economy, as well as to the fight against climate change.
1. Overview
Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 establishing the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the 2021–2027 period was adopted in July 2021. The Regulation sets out the objectives of the CEF, the budget for the 2021–2027 period, the forms of European Union funding from this instrument, and the rules for providing funding. The new rules have been in effect since 1 January 2021.
The CEF 2021-2027 is aimed at supporting investments in key projects in the transport, digital, and energy infrastructure sectors, with a total budget of 33.71 billion euros.
The budget for each sector as follows:
- Transport: 25.81 billion euros, which includes 11.29 billion euros for cohesion countries,
- Energy: 5.84 billion euros,
- Digital: 2.07 billion euros.
The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) will manage the transport and energy components of the CEF program. The national coordinator for the transport sector is the Ministry of Infrastructure.
For more information regarding the energy sector, please contact the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy, Directorate for Energy, Energy Supply Department.
European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) manages the digital component of the CEF program. For more information regarding the digital sector, please contact the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Department for Electronic Communications.
Transport
In the transport sector, the program will promote interconnected and multimodal networks for the development and modernization of railway, road, maritime infrastructure, and inland waterways, as well as ensuring safe and secure mobility. It prioritizes further development of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), with a focus on missing links and cross-border projects with European added value. A budget of 1.56 billion euros for transport will be allocated to the funding of major railway projects among cohesion countries, while 1.69 billion euros will be dedicated to ensuring dual civil-military use of transport infrastructure, adapted to enhance military mobility in the EU.
2. Call for Alternative fuels infrastructure Facitiliy - transport (AFIF II) for the period 2024-2025
On 29 February 2024, the European Commission published a CEF call for proposals for the co-financing of charging infrastructure for alternative fuels in the amount of 1 billion euros. 780 million grants are available under the general envelope and 220 million grants under the cohesion envelope.
The objective of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) call for proposal is to support the deployment of alternative fuels supply infrastructure, contributing to decarbonising transport along the TEN-T network.
This call for proposals covers the roll-out of alternative fuels infrastructure for road, maritime, inland waterway and air transport. In addition to the support to high power electricity recharging stations and hydrogen refuelling stations, the following new funding opportunities will be available:
- Support to recharging stations for Heavy Duty Vehicles
- Support to electricity and hydrogen supply at airports
- Support to electricity supply and ammonia and methanol bunkering facilities in ports
The AFIF will be implemented through a rolling call for proposals, with three cut-off dates for the submission of proposals within the period 2024- 2025. Applicants can submit their proposals before any of the three cut-off dates:
- 24 September 2024 at 17.00 (CET)
- 11 June 2025 at 17.00 (CET)
- 17 December 2025 at 17.00 (CET)
Who can apply?
Proposals shall be submitted:
- a) by one or more Member States; or
- b) with the agreement of the Member States concerned, by international organisations, joint undertakings, or by public or private undertakings or bodies, including regional or local authorities.
Applicants must submit their proposals electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System no later than the dates and times indicated above. Application forms must be prepared in accordance with the call conditions and the guidelines of the European Commission. When submitting an application, the applicant must provide a Letter of support confirming the agreement of the Member State concerned to the submission of the application under the call for proposals.
In order to obtain the approval of the Member State, applicants who will implement the project on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia must submit the complete application forms to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Financial Division - European Funds Section, no later than one month before the deadline for submitting applications to the European Commission. The deadlines for submitting applications to the Ministry of Infrastructure are therefore as follows:
- 24 August 2024
- 11 May 2025
- 17 November 2025
The Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy examines the content of the project proposal at the request of the Ministry of Infrastructure, which acts as the national CEF contact point for the transport sector.
Complete applications must also include a completed and certified declaration from the applicant(s) (Declaration from the applicant before signing the form 'Letter of support (Member State agreement)').
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Declaration for receiving the signed 'Letter of support (Member State agreement)' form for the application to the '2024 CEF AFIF' call for proposals
Forms- IPE 2021 2027 Izjava PO prijava (docx, 45 KB)
CINEA only accepts applications that have been reviewed and approved by the Member State concerned. Therefore, the prior submission of complete applications to the Ministry of Infrastructure is crucial. We cannot finalise the examination and approval of the application if we do not receive the documents described in the call for proposals (including the mandatory annexes). Applications without the approval of the Member State do not fulfil the requirements of the call and will therefore not be considered for evaluation and funding allocation. All applicants carrying out the activities of the project on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia must obtain approval from the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia.
3. Call for proposal under Connecting Europe Facility – Transport 2024
Application Deadline: January 21, 2025, by 5:00 PM.
The 2024 CEF Transport calls for proposals make €2.5 billion available to build and modernise European transport infrastructure. They support the European Commission’s vision of a future sustainable transport system, with smart and resilient solutions implemented to interconnect Europe.
Projects funded under these calls will help make the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) more sustainable, smart and resilient and contribute to the EU’s goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050.
The calls covers the core, extended core and comprehensive TEN-T networks in the following areas:
- railways
- inland waterways (IWWs)
- maritime and inland ports
- road safety
- multimodal freight terminals
- multimodal passenger hubs
- smart and interoperable applications for transport
- safe and secure mobility
- infrastructure resilience
The expected duration for projects that include only studies is a maximum of three years. For projects involving works, the expected duration is a maximum of five years. In both cases, the project completion date must not be later than December 31, 2028.
In the Republic of Slovenia, the required attachments for the call for proposals are validated by the relevant national authorities as follows:
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Agreement from the Member State: A "Letter of Support (Member State Agreement)" form must be provided. This document is certified by the Ministry of Infrastructure, which serves as the national contact point for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program in the transport sector.
2. Evidence of Environmental Compliance: Applicants are responsible for obtaining confirmation of the proposed project's environmental compliance.
- Statement on Project Impact on Water Status: This statement can be acquired by applicants based on the requisite data outlined in the Application for the Statement affirming that the project will not lead to the deterioration of water status, along with the accompanying documents.
- Issuance of Certificates for Natura 2000 Monitoring: Certificates can be obtained after the completion of the necessary permitting and approval processes mandated by the current legislation of the Republic of Slovenia.
Applicants must submit requests for the issuance of these certificates no later than December 20, 2024.
