ECF publishes a first-of-its-kind analysis of financial investments in cycling projects made by EU Member States using EU Structural Funds, based on data from the European Commission’s “Cohesion Open Data Platform”.
On 29 August 2023, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) published an insightful new policy brief , presenting key figures for investments in cycling EU Structural Funds. Approximately €3.21 billion is set to be invested in cycling projects across Europe in the present 2021-2027 EU structural funding period. This would be a 30% increase compared to the previous 2014-2020 financial period and should finance the construction of about 12,000 km of cycling infrastructure. In an optimistic scenario, where Managing Authorities adjust their planned investments mid-way in the cycle in favour of cycling as it already happened during the 2014-2020 period, even as much as €4-4.8 billion in Structural Funds could be unlocked for cycling projects, ECF calculated.
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) remains by far the single largest structural fund relevant for cycling investments, followed by the Cohesion Fund and the Just Transition Fund (JTF). The JTF in principle is open to all EU Member States, but only two countries – Poland and Czech Republic – make use of it for cycling investments. Interreg is part of the ERDF fund. Big discrepancies between EU Member States
Behind this positive overall trend in unlocking more EU investments for cycling hide big discrepancies between Member States. Whereas some countries are set to invest considerably more in cycling, such as Czech Republic, […]
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