EU grants €58.3m to Finnish transport projects

The EU awarded Finland a total of EUR 58.3 million for five railway projects in the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding application round, said a government press release.

The funding was awarded to the one-hour Helsinki-Turku rail link, railway design and construction engineering for the Espoo urban railway, improvement of the Pasila-Riihimäki track, improvement of the rail connection between Kouvola, Kotka, and Hamina, and the development of rail transport services on the Oulu-Laurila-Tornio-Haaparanta route. In addition, the EU supports projects involving the ports of Helsinki and Naantali.

The CEF Coordination Committee made its decisions on the funding to be awarded on 16 July 2020. The total amount of funding granted by the European Commission amounted to almost EUR 2.2 billion.

“I am very pleased with the sum awarded to Finland, which is one of the biggest ones we have ever received in the CEF application rounds. The proposed rail projects in different parts of Finland provide effective means to support climate recovery. Projects will be launched as early as in August,” said Transport and Communications Minister Timo Harakka.

The purpose of the funding granted by the European Commission is to promote investment in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). National funding is an eligibility requirement, and the state has made a commitment to provide financing to all rail projects awarded with CEF funding.

According to the release, the Finland Railway Project was not granted CEF funding in this application round, but this will not affect plans to set up a project company or to move ahead with the rail section design engineering. The application only covered a small part of the overall design engineering, and the project company to be established will actively participate in all future funding applications. The Vantaa light rail line was also not granted funding at this stage. However, a decision was made regarding the division of the Vantaa tram line planning costs in negotiations on land use, housing and transport (MAL) between the Helsinki region and the state in June 2020, and the lack of CEF funding will have no effect on the outcome