Yesterday, the European Commission launched three Calls for Proposals under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) multi-annual program, making €180 million (nearly $258 million) available to finance European transport infrastructure projects in the fields of European Rail Traffic Management Systems (ERTMS), Motorways of the Sea (MoS) and River Information Services (RIS). This will help to make travel and transport by rail and water more safe and secure as well as more attractive compared to other transport modes.
Commission Vice President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, said: "The Commission is happy to play its part in making our transport system more competitive and sustainable. Funding these projects will make our infrastructure more efficient, through the use of improved traffic management and information systems, as well as the shifting of road freight to other modes such as rail or waterborne transport through the development of green fright corridor."
The TEN-T multi-annual program aims to finance the highest priorities of the TEN-T network. This year's calls focus on three fields:
- European Rail Traffic Management Systems (ERTMS), enabling interoperability on the European rail network: maximum budget €100 million (over $143 million),
- Motorways of the Sea (TEN-T Priority Project 21), providing viable alternatives for congested roads by shifting freight to sea routes: maximum budget €70 million (over $100 million),
- River Information Services (RIS), involving traffic management infrastructure on the inland waterway network: maximum budget €10 million (over $14 million).
The Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T EA) manages the technical and financial implementation of the TEN-T program. It is responsible on behalf of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, for the management of the Calls for Proposals and for the external evaluation of project proposals submitted.
TEN-T EA will host a TEN-T Info Day today in Brussels to help potential applicants better understand the call priorities, prepare their proposals and learn about the evaluation process.
The deadline for the submission of proposals is September 23, 2011. Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of their relevance to the TEN-T priorities and policy objectives, their maturity, their impact – in particular socio-economic and environmental – and their quality in terms of completeness, clarity, soundness and coherence.