Financing opportunities for sustainable urban mobility projects

Cities can turn to ten sources of funding for sustainable urban mobility:

1. The biggest source is the European Structural and Investment Funds. These are the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund. They are managed by specific authorities in the Member States who have agreed specific Operational Programmes on a regional level with the European Commission. Over 2014-2020, 24 Member States benefit from those funds and cities can spend directly 5% of the amounts. To find out more about whether your project can fit into an Operational Programme, contact the authority in charge in your country:http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/manage/authority/authority_en.cfm . If you are in one of the 15 cohesion countries, you can also receive assistance to prepare your project from the JASPERS programme:http://www.jaspers-europa-info.org/ .
2. The Connecting Europe Facility funds finance the trans-European transport network projects. Since 2014, some CEF calls address the urban nodes i.e. the cities on the network. Over 2014-2015, up to €500 million will be dedicated to urban nodes. Find out more and follow the calls athttp://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/connecting-europe-facility/cef-transport .
3. The European Investment Bank can give loans and guarantees. It does so directly for large-scale projects of more than €25 million, or via national and regional banks for smaller projects. More information can be found at http://www.eib.org/infocentre/publications/all/eib-transport-lending-policy.htm . The EIB also offers via its ELENA programme grants to cover the preparation costs of large energy efficiency and renewable projects and help attract private investors. See http://www.eib.org/products/advising/elena/index.htm for more info. The EIB also manages the JESSICA programme through which Member States can choose to invest some of their ESI funds in so-called revolving funds:http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/special-support-instruments/jessica/ . And finally the EIB manages the European Energy Efficiency Fund which co-finances energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean urban transport projects: http://www.eeef.eu/home.html .
4. The INTERREG Europe 2014-2015 programme co-finances public authorities from different regions to work together on a shared policy issue, including in the areas of low-carbon economy and resource-efficiency. Find out more and follow the calls at http://www.interreg4c.eu/interreg-europe .
5. The URBACT III programme co-finances the creation of networks of cities who develop integrated solutions to common urban challenges. Find out more and follow the calls at http://www.urbact.eu/open-calls-networks .

More about financing on link.

Marin Dokoza

Source: European Commision