EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states are running out of time to secure funding for vital rail schemes promised in the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) announced in 2021, the European Rail Industry Supply Association (Unife) has warned.
Up to €650bn in grants and low-interest loans are available under RRF, which was announced in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Around €87bn was earmarked specifically for sustainable transport, with around €58bn available for urban and mainline rail projects. The deadline for member states to make payment requests to the European Commission (EC) is August 2026, and Unife says that time is “growing increasingly short” to complete all the necessary milestones and targets identified as part of this process.
“Many EU Member States have budget concerns, and we want to insist on the need of not missing this historic opportunity to invest in rail,” says Mr Enno Wiebe, Unife’s director general.
“This funding could go towards creating jobs on “shovel ready” rail projects, fleet renewals, boosting the ERTMS roll-out, improving and greening urban mobility and advancing the completion of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).”
Unife points out that many states have benefitted from the funding, notably Italy which has advanced several significant projects from a €29.4bn allocation for rail, by far the biggest single amount received by one member state. Spain, France and Romania are among the other countries that have used more than €4.5bn each to advance key infrastructure, digitalisation, urban rail, signalling and fleet upgrade projects.
Unife adds that it has alerted the EC on the difficulties faced by several member states to implement rail projects under RRF. It says that with rail projects often facing longer implementation cycles, member states have found it difficult to fulfil the required milestones and targets. However, this should not discourage member states from pursuing the funding. Indeed, Unife says it is encouraged by efforts made by the EC to amend milestones and targets for some projects to reflect these longer cycles and to allow member states to draw the funds.
“Considering the next EU budget, where the application of the RRF performance-based method will be the rule across different EU funding programmes, we need to make sure that rail projects are given sufficient and realistic timelines to be able to benefit from EU funding,” Wiebe says
