Today, during the European Parliament’s Plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs endorsed a deal with Member States on the EU's new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a new funding instrument that aims to speed up the completion of key trans-European transport, energy and telecoms links.

The CEF will have a total budget of about €29.3 billion (at 2011 prices) for 2014-2020, with some €23.2 billion earmarked for the transport sector to improve cross-border connections, remove bottlenecks and bridge gaps; €5.12 billion for energy, to modernise and expand energy infrastructure and increase security of supply; and €1 billion for telecoms, to stimulate the development of broadband networks and digital services.

In a separate vote, MEPs approved guidelines setting out common principles and priorities for completing the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) by linking up major cities and ports to form an efficient “road-rail-air-water” trans-European transport network.

A political agreement between Council and Parliament had already been reached  on 27 June 2013. Following the Parliament’s approval, the Council of the EU is also expected to endorse the agreement in the near future.

ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven welcomed the final approval of the agreement and added: “The new TEN-T guidelines, along with the nine projected intermodal corridors, recognize the key role that EU seaports play in the European but also global logistics chain as gateways to the single market. The inclusion of all major European seaports in the so-called “core” and “comprehensive networks”, spread along the continent's coastline, will in our view guarantee the effectiveness of the European intermodal transport network in the years to come. As main users of EU seaports, we hope that the budget allocated to port infrastructures and their hinterland connections will be sufficient to enable the shift to a truly intermodal European transport network"