In June 2011, the European Commission presented the proposals of the legislative packages and the documents necessary for approaching the political challenges that EU has faced in the past years and in July, the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. The proposal brings several new elements compared to the previous financial period (2007-2013): Facilitating Connections in Europe, dedicated to financing cross-border energy, transport and information technology projects and also inserts changes on the research, cohesion, agriculture and foreign affairs segments.
Therefore, the total amount proposed for the next seven years is EUR 1,025 Billion in commitments (+ 4.8% compared to the previous amount) – 1.05% of the EU gross national income and EUR 972.2 Billion (1% of EU gross
national income) in payments.
For research and innovation, EC proposed an amount of EUR 80 Billion and this financing will be completed by the aid for research and innovation from Structural Funds. For example, in 2007-2013, EUR 60 Billion were spent in this segment and in the future, EU expects costs to be similar.
The development of the research and innovation segment has a major importance in the development of a single market.
The development of a single market depends on a modern and performing infrastructure connecting Europe through transport, energy, information and communications infrastructures.
EC estimates investments of EUR 200 Billion for finalizing the energy network, more than EUR 540 Billion in the transport network and EUR 250 Million for ICT. EUR 9.1 Billion will be allocated for the energy and ICT sectors through the Connection Facility. But while the market needs and has to supply a significant share of investments, there should be instruments approaching potential failures by reducing potential missing links, eliminating deadlocks and ensuring an adequate cross-border connection.
However, national budgets will never grant enough priority to the border connections between several countries to allocate investments in cross-border projects. Therefore, the new EU budget focuses on providing financing for pan-European projects “connecting the city centre to the suburbs”.
“The accent falls on reducing the discrepancies between the central network and the periphery and we have to identify solutions so that the network will transform railway transport into the most attractive mean of transport especially in new EU member states”, declared Jean-Marie Seyler, Director in DG REGIO responsible for Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Romania, during a seminar organised by UNIFE and CER in Sofia.
Therefore, the EC decided to propose the establishment of a Connection Facility in Europe in order to accelerate the infrastructure development. Through this programme, EC proposes the allocation of EUR 40 Billion, an amount completed by an additional sum of EUR 10 Billion for transport investments through the Cohesion Fund.
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