EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
This report analyses the contribution of EU Cohesion Policy (ECP) in improving regional connectivity in all types of transport-related infrastructure, financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF), in particular, during the programming period 2014-2020. The analysis was mostly supported by a literature review and data analysis from approved ECP project databases as well as regional (NUTS 2) statistical databases of economic indicators (employment and GDP).
From the literature review, it was possible to confirm a general consensus that investment in transport infrastructure is very important in enabling socioeconomic development processes by providing adequate accessibility to people, goods and businesses. Conversely, some of these investments tend to have negative environmental impacts, especially if they do not regard sustainable and smart transport systems.
As with other public policies, ECP funding should be spent wisely (the relevance factor), effectively (goals vs results) and efficiently (resources vs results). In terms of regional accessibility, this means that only transport accessibility investments that can effectively provide a proven positive impact on territorial (local, regional, national, EU) development trends are to be approved. Indeed, an historical analysis of the ECP support to improve and modernise regional transport accessibility in some EU Member States, like Portugal, demonstrates a dual general impact: for one, the construction of modern motorway connections significantly improved territorial development processes. Conversely, the excessive concentration of ECP investment in road infrastructure vis-à-vis the modernisation and expansion of existing railway networks proved not to be the optimal policy and strategic decision for improving the mobility of people and goods in a sustainable and effective manner.
EU Cohesion Policy support to regional accessibility (2014-2020)
In the past years, the EU’s eastward territorial expansion led to an increasing allocation of ECP funding towards modernising transport regional accessibility in the new and less socioeconomically developed EU Member States. This justifies that in the 2014-2020 phase of the ECP, 16% of its total spending was used to support transport accessibility. If joined with the financial support for energy infrastructure, transport infrastructure was the ECP area that received the most funding in overall terms. The rationale behind this lies in the substantial financial support required for regional accessibility needs. Unsurprisingly, this funding benefited ‘Cohesion Fund countries’ (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and in particular Poland, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, respectively.
Overall, the distribution of ECP (2014-20) funding per EU Member States and regions (NUTS 2) in the domain of regional transport infrastructure is justified in view of the EU region’s need to improve regional accessibility. The question is: how impactful were the EUR 82.3 billion spent in this domain on the development of the affected regions and on increasing their overall regional accessibility levels in an EU context? As most experts in transport infrastructure would reply, it is not easy to assess the main impacts of transport infrastructure, as related financed projects usually serve to renovate or expand existing transport networks and also because their implementation tends to expand the seven years of ECP phases. Indeed, based on the collected data, there is no visible positive correlation between economic development trends in EU regions and ECP investment in regional accessibility. Crucially, policies do not act in isolation and hence many other investment policies contribute to development trends as well, making it complex to identify precisely the potential positive impacts of ECP on enhancing regional accessibility. For that, a sound Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) methodology like the Target TIA could provide deeper multidimensional impact analyses of ECP investment in transport accessibility in a selected territory. Such methodology, however, requires the collection of a wealth of data and time to be effectively implemented, which is out of the scope of this report.
Challenges and pathways for improving EU Cohesion Policy to support regional accessibility (2014-2020)
Despite the challenges of analysing the main impacts of ECP on improving regional accessibility through transport infrastructure, a few main conclusions can be drawn from the collected information:
- ECP is still a vital financial tool to improve regional accessibility performances across the EU territory. It has also been crucial to address regional accessibility imbalances in the EU, as it has allocated a larger financial package to EU regions that require modernisation and improvements in their transport infrastructure connections. As such, future ECP programming periods should continue their effort to make the EU territory adequately linked with a modern, sustainable, regular, smart and fast transport network that serves the needs of people and businesses.
- In view of the regional accessibility needs in many EU regions, ECP should maintain or increase its investment to continue the process of improving regional accessibility across the EU territory. However, these investments should target the construction or renovation of high-speed train connections that can substitute short-distant flights and provide an effective connection between major and medium-sized towns in a national context. Furthermore, rural areas should also be adequately served by interconnected transport networks, as access to public transport should be regarded as a service of general interest for all citizens. Moreover, support for more sustainable transport infrastructure should be a policy priority, not only at the urban level but also at the regional, national and EU levels.
- At the transnational and cross-border level, ECP should increase its funding for the Interreg A and B programmes, as all existing studies point to the fact that there are still many cross-border EU regions with low levels of cross-border transport accessibility. In past years, several Interreg projects (see case studies section) have contributed to mitigating this persistent border barrier in several EU cross-border passages, which greatly affects the lives of EU citizens and especially many of the around two million European cross-border commuters.
In this context, the financial support for enhancing cross-border and transnational transport infrastructure crossings through ECP investments needs to be increased. This amplification is necessary to implement improvements in numerous EU cross-border areas, especially those predominantly characterised as rural. Moreover, these cross-border transport infrastructures need to be appropriately linked with existing regional transport infrastructure to increase interoperability. - ECP should also contribute to increasing support for the TEN-T network that effectively links regional accessibility gaps between EU major and medium-sized cities, following a sustainable and smart mobility strategic implementation rationale. Additionally, priority should be given to ECP investments in regional connectivity to establish metro network systems in all EU capitals and major cities, along with direct train connections to their respective airports, which remains far from achieved, particularly in Eastern EU Member States.
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