EU TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE: SPEEDING-UP INVESTMENT IN MILITARY MOBILITY
At the end of December, the European Commission agreed to speed up the financing of 35 military mobility projects to support the transport of troops and equipment along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). With a budget, increased from €330 million to €616 million, these projects will help European armed forces to respond better, more rapidly and at a sufficient scale to crises erupting at and outside the EU's external borders.
The projects will support Member States and partners to develop a well-connected and secure military mobility network. Examples include the upgrade of six rail bridges and the construction of two low-speed track sections for longer and heavier trains in Germany on the North Sea - Baltic Corridor, the purchase of a multi-use hybrid propulsion ice-breaker to increase capacity in the port of Riga, the upgrade of two stretches of road along the Via Baltica close to the Lithuanian-Polish border, the modernisation of rail infrastructure at the Romanian port of Constanta, and the construction of a new bridge over the Prut river connecting Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
The 35 projects have been selected among those submitted under the second Military Mobility call for proposals issued by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme, the funding instrument for strategic investment in EU transport infrastructure. The Commission will pay grants, which co-finance the total estimated project costs and which will be paid earlier than initially planned.