The technical and financial evaluation of proposals of Marco Polo call for proposal has finished with 31 projects.

31 projects from the 2008 Call for proposals for modal shift, catalyst, motorways of the sea, traffic avoidance and common learning actions are ready to be put forward for the approval of the EACI Director and the Commission's Energy & Transport DG. Negotiations start during the summer period. A more detailed breakdown of the proposed projects by transport mode shows as follows:

• 59% railway.
• 20.5% combined railway and shipping.
• 18% motorways of the sea and short-sea shipping.
• 2.5% inland waterways.

The deadline to submit project proposals was 7 April 2008 for € 59 million available. The Funding areas for 2008 are:

• Modal shift actions, which focus on shifting as much freight as economically meaningful under current market conditions from road to short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways. They may be proposing start-up of new services or significantly enhance existing services.
• Catalyst actions change the way non-road freight transport is conducted in the Community. Under this type of action, structural market barriers in European freight transport are overcome through a highly innovative concept: causing a real break-through
• Motorways of the sea actions achieving a door-to-door service, which shift freight from long road distances to a combination of short sea shipping and other modes of transport. Actions of this kind are innovative at a European level in terms of logistics, equipment, products and services rendered.
• Traffic avoidance actions integrate transport into production logistics: reducing freight transport demand by road with a direct impact on emissions. Actions of this type shall be innovative and shall not adversely affect production output and production workforce.
• Common learning actions enhance knowledge in the freight logistics sector and foster advanced methods and procedures of co-operation in the freight market. Under this type of action, improvement of co-operation and sharing of know-how is encouraged.