On June 29, 2011, the European Commission submitted to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, the Communication on the proposals for “Europe 2020 Budget”.
Thus, the EU budget proposal for the financial period 2014-2020 includes a 4.8% growth than the budget for 2007-2013, from EUR 975 Billion to EUR 1,025 Billion.
“A large part of the budget will be aimed at getting people into work and the economy growing. A new Connecting Europe Facility will finance the missing links in energy, transport and information technology. (…) There will be significant new money for education and vocational training, and for research and innovation to create the jobs and ideas of tomorrow. And money for less developed regions will go to jobs and growth, which will also benefit the whole of Europe”, declared José Manuel Barroso.
In the attempt of attracting member states opposing to the budget growth proposal, the Commission proposed reducing national contributions, in conformity with the austerity measures implemented in Europe. Therefore, if during 2007-2013, each state had to contribute to the EU budget by 1.12% of the national gross income, during 2014-2020, states would allocate 1.05% of their national gross income.
For the Cohesion Fund, a EUR 376 Billion budget (2014-2020) is proposed, EUR 162.6 Billion for convergence regions, EUR 38.9 Billion for transition regions, EUR 53.1 Billion for competitiveness, 11.7 Billion for territorial cooperation and EUR 68.7 Billion for the Cohesion Fund.
Compared to the previous budget, in the 2014-2020 budget, the EC stresses the importance of infrastructure by allocating an additional EUR 40 Billion for energy, transport and ICT. The well-development of a single market demands a performing infrastructure to contribute to the European connections, especially through transport infrastructure, energy, information technology and communications.
Thus, in transports, the costs of infrastructure development in conformity with the demand, is estimated at EUR 1.5 Trillion for 2010-2030. For finalising the TEN-T network, an investment of EUR 500 Billion is necessary by 2020, EUR 250 Billion of which should be directed towards projects aimed at eliminating bottlenecks.
In the new budget, the proposal for the instrument concerning the European interconnection, for energy infrastructure, transport and ICT, stipulates a EUR 40 Billion fund, of which EUR 9.1 Billion for energy, EUR 9.2 Billion for ICT and EUR 21.7 Billion for transport, plus an additional EUR 10% through the Cohesion Fund.
Also, in the budget proposal for 2014-2020, EC published the preliminary list of the European corridors for mobility and the transport projects on the main network which are due to be financed by 2020.
EC’s priorities are focusing on innovating management and services and traffic management systems for railway, road and inland waterways transport (ITS, ERTMS and RIS), as well as on the main network of ports and airports.
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