The European Commission has released EUR 980 million of funding for key European energy infrastructure projects with major cross-border benefits.
The EU funding comes from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European support programme for trans-European infrastructure. This is seen as a crucial instrument to deliver on the Green Deal, one of the political priorities of the von der Leyen Commission, given the key enabling role of energy infrastructure in the transition to a climate neutral economy.
The 2020 CEF Energy call for proposals will be open until 27 May 2020.
To apply for CEF Energy funding, projects must first be designated Projects of Common Interest (PCIs). PCIs need to have a significant impact on at least two EU countries and must increase competitiveness, enhance the EU’s energy security and contribute to sustainable development. Given the climate neutrality objective under the Green Deal, financial assistance provided under this call for proposals should maximise its added value towards decarbonisation.
The proposals submitted for co-financing, which can be for studies or construction works, will then be evaluated against several additional criteria. These criteria include their state of maturity, their benefits in terms of security of supply, solidarity or innovation, the extent of public support needed to remove financing bottlenecks as well as the priority and urgency of the proposed action.
CEF-Energy provides EU funding for energy infrastructure projects that increase competitiveness, enhance the EU’s security of energy supply, contribute to sustainable development and reduction of CO2 emissions, as well as promotion of safe, efficient and secure network operation (including cybersecurity). CEF-Energy has a total budget of EUR 4.9 billion for trans-European energy infrastructure for the period 2014-2020.
In the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, the European Commission has proposed to renew the Connecting Europe Facility, allocating EUR 42.3 billion to support investments in European infrastructure networks. For CEF Energy, the European Commission has proposed a budget of EUR 8.7 billion including a new window for cross-border projects in the field of renewable energy.