Facts & context

The EU budget is crucial to translating EU Members States’ political priorities into concrete programmes and activities. The European Union forecasts its budget for periods of five years under the so-called ‘Multiannual Financial Framework’ (MFF). The Covid-19 crisis made negotiations related to the MFF for 2021-2027 more cumbersome and complex, but they also triggered the EU to design an additional Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to alleviate the impact of Covid-19 on national economies. An EIM analysis shows that the RRF fund amounts up to EUR 42 billion of projected investments in rail by at least five Member States. 

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is part of the MFF and the main funding instrument for rail infrastructure projects in Europe. It provides the financial support for the completion of the TEN-T Network. An agreement on the CEF for 2021-2027 (CEF 2.0) was finally reached in March 2021. More details were published throughout the year and communicated to the members. 

EIM in action

• EIM advocates for increased EU funding for rail infrastructure projects for existing and new rail infrastructure (including renewals [and maintenance]) in order to match the increasing standards of the TEN-T Network. 
• EIM maintains constructive dialogue with the EU regarding the transport budget in general and the rail infrastructure budget in particular. 
• EIM highlights the importance of financial support for digital rail infrastructure, in particular ERTMS but also 5G and innovation through the ‘Europe’s Rail’ Joint Undertaking.