Regional Transport Investment Conference, 23-24 March 2017, BG/Sofia

1. 2017/2 | Harbours Review | 15
This event organised by the European Commission spread the latest know-how on financing all kinds
of transport-related projects. It provided an opportunity to hear more about the different ways that
enable to get in the stream of public money.
Is there any money for my project?
by Maciej Kniter
Photos: Regional Transport Investment Conference
t
he conference was opened by Viole-
ta Bulc, EU Transport Commissioner,
who focused on how transport in-
vestments increase welfare. Having
said that the budget for the 2014-2020 pe-
riod is EUR 26 blillion, the Commissioner
stressed that the needs are much higher,
estimated at EUR 700 blillion. This is why
the European Commission invites private
capital to participate in backing the key
projects, the European Fund for Strategic
Investments (EFSI) being one of the tools
to encourage companies to take part,
thanks to lowering the risk of investing.
What’s on the agenda?
According to Violeta Bulc, there are
two priorities for EU transport – digitali-
sation and decarbonization, “We can en-
courage Member States to cooperate.”
An example of this may be the concept of
platooning, which is not under the EU leg-
islation, but remains in the competence
of states, and whenever they want to co-
operate in this field, they sign a bilateral
agreement.
Rail is among the sectors of biggest
importance. As much as 97% of European
rails is electrified; however, it’s mostly un-
derinvested, too and if this trend protracts,
we won’t see more freight hitting rails,
because it is not as competitive as other
transport modes.
Asked about the stream of Chinese
money flowing into Europe as part of
One Belt One Road initiative by Vassil
Sotirov, Managing Board Member and
Chairman of the Union of Bulgarian
Journalists, Violeta Bulc answered that
the cooperation is good, especially that
we want to set up common priorities. “If
the money is to be invested in the EU,
it must follow European standards,” she
nevertheless added.
The first day of the event also touched
upon financing clean transport in detail.
The first out of three examples concerned
Riga Transport Company, presented by
Aivars Starkovs. The second one, titled
National Fund to support clean and sus-
tainable investments – the story of ECO
SKLAD in Slovenia, was introduced by
Katarina Kafadar, Eco Fund’s Council-
lor. Last, but not least, programmes and
instruments to finance cleaner transport,
namely ELENA, the Cleaner Transport
Facility, and Green Shipping financ-
ing programmes, were demonstrat-
ed by Neil Valentine, Head of Strate-
gic Roads Division at the European
Investment Bank.
The main point on Friday’s agen-
da was an info session on the EUR
1.0 blillion so-called blending call un-
der the Connecting Europe Facility.
The participants could learn about
key aspects and new features of the
blending call, as well as get more into
an application process, incl. required
documents and evaluation process.
Finally, the conference ended with
a session on regulations, public-
private interactions, and facilitating
cross-border investment, such as the
Rail Baltica project. ‚
Regional Transport Investment Conference,
23-24 March, BG/Sofia