About the Connecting Europe Facility

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a key EU funding instrument in delivering the European Green Deal and an important enabler towards the Union’s decarbonisation objectives for 2030 and 2050. It supports the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services. CEF investments fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone.

The CEF benefits people across all Member States, as it makes travel easier and more sustainable, it enhances Europe’s energy security while enabling wider use of renewables, and it facilitates cross-border interaction between public administrations, businesses and citizens.

In addition to grants, the CEF offers financial support to projects through innovative financial instruments such as guarantees and project bonds. These instruments create significant leverage in their use of EU budget and act as a catalyst to attract further funding from the private sector and other public sector actors.

A connected, modern, secure and smart energy infrastructure will be key in delivering the European Green Deal. The Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) framework will be a key enabler towards the Union’s decarbonisation objectives for 2030 and 2050 while contributing to sector and market integration, security of supply and competition.

The Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) policy, which focuses on linking the energy infrastructure of EU countries, has been instrumental in upgrading the EU’s infrastructure cross-border energy since 2013. To address the energy infrastructure needs at regional and European level, the TEN-E policy identifies priority corridors and thematic areas and establishes a biennial list of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) that help the EU meet its short and long-term energy and climate objectives.

For the 2021-2027 period, the energy budget of €5.84 billion should help the transition towards clean energy and complete the Energy Union, making the EU energy systems more interconnected, smarter and digitalised. The focus is on cross-border renewable energy projects, interoperability of networks and better integration of the internal energy market.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport is the funding instrument to realise European transport infrastructure policy. It aims at supporting investments in building new transport infrastructure in Europe or rehabilitating and upgrading the existing one.

Trans-European Networks for Transport (TEN-T) policy objectives foresee:

• completion by 2030 of the Core Network, structured around nine multimodal Core Network Corridors.
• completion by 2050 of the Comprehensive Network in order to facilitate accessibility to all European regions

CEF Transport focuses on cross-border projects and projects aiming at removing bottlenecks or bridging missing links in various sections of the Core Network and on the Comprehensive Network, as well as for horizontal priorities such as traffic management systems.

CEF Transport also supports innovation in the transport system in order to improve the use of infrastructure, reduce the environmental impact of transport, enhance energy efficiency and increase safety.

The budget for CEF Transport is of €25.81 billion (including €11.29 billion for cohesion countries).

The digital part of the Connecting Europe Facility is managed by the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).