Europese Commissie wil meer aandacht schenken aan 'snelwegen op zee' programma (en)

The European Commission launches today a one-stop helpdesk on funding possibilities for "motorways of the sea" projects under the Trans-European Network for Transport i (TEN-T) programme and the Marco Polo i programme. It will also point to other relevant national and European Union funding schemes. The "motorways of the sea" initiative is a TEN-T priority project that aims to promote green, viable, attractive and efficient sea-based transport links integrated through the entire transport chain.

European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas i, in charge of Transport, said: "I welcome this initiative that will make it easier for operators to find funds for their motorways of the sea projects. It is another example of how the European Commission is taking concrete steps to make our transport system greener and more efficient."

Although motorways of the sea is already supported by the TEN-T and Marco Polo programmes, it also benefits from other potential resources, such as the European Investment Bank, Structural Funds, the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance as well as national funding. Before today there was no single guiding source of information on these various programmes, making it difficult for operators who intend to launch a new motorways of the sea project to combine funding from different sources.

With the creation of the one-stop helpdesk - which is backed by the European coordinator of the motorways of the sea, Mr Valente de Oliveira - the Commission addresses an important bottleneck to starting up new motorways of the sea projects. It will not only help with identifying co-financing options for potential new projects, but also with preparing new funding applications for motorways of the sea projects under the TEN-T and Marco Polo II programmes. The service provided at this stage will be web-based at www.mos-helpdesk.eu . Questions can be sent by e-mail to ec-mos-helpdesk@ec.europa.eu and users can expect a reply within a week.

The one-stop helpdesk will be jointly managed by the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency and the Executive Agency for Competitiveness & Innovation. The one-stop helpdesk initiative will be presented today during the Marco Polo European Info Day taking place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels.

Motorways of the sea:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/maritime/motorways_sea/motorways_sea_en.htm

Marco Polo: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/marcopolo/home/home_en.htm