The European Commission has  announced the first group of projects that will benefit from a total of €500 million worth of investment in vital transport infrastructure projects across the EU. The grants will be allocated under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, which helps to fund works to build missing transport links or remove bottlenecks in order to enable people and goods to circulate quickly and easily between Member States.

The €500 million funding was originally intended to be spread out over several years, but was brought forward earlier this year because of the Commission's coordinated response to the economic crisis. As transport plays such a central role in the economy, improving the infrastructure can act as a catalyst for increased economic activity.

TEN-T grants, under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, play a key role in making infrastructure works possible by either funding studies to help overcome early stage project difficulties or by financing part of the actual works. Traffic between Member States is expected to double by 2020. To accommodate this growth, major investments will be needed until 2020 to complete and modernise the network in a sustainable way.

The €500 million package constitutes a vital part of the Commission's response to the economic crisis. The funding announced today will go towards projects in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom. A second group of projects benefitting from TEN-T funding will be announced later this year.

The funding was announced at the first day of the TEN-T days in Naples. This year's conference is dedicated to: "The future of Trans-European Transport Networks: building bridges between Europe and its neighbours". As part of the conference, participants will take stock of the implementation of the 30 so-called priority projects and provide a first outline of common priorities until 2020.

List of TEN-T funding announced

Austria

• Four-track development of the Western Line Vienna-Linz: Melk railway station (€3,400,000)

Belgium

• Rebuilding of Noorderlaanbridge (€1,342,000)

France

• New railway high speed line "LGV Est" Second phase: section Baudrecourt-Vendenheim (€75,996,000)

Germany

• AB A3, Frankfurt-Nürnberg, renewal of the Main bridge at Randersacker (€2,395,000)
• Tri-modal enlargement of the water involvement of Cologne Port (€3,330,000)

Hungary

• Construction of a pier for combined Schengen and non-Schengen operations and seamless passenger transfer at Budapest Airport (€7,560,000)

Italy

• Rome Ring Road Motorway – northwestern section – upgrade to three lanes in both directions from km 11+250 to km 12+650 – completion works (€2,981,000)
• Implementation of nautical accessibility in the port of Venice-Marghera: operational and remedial dredging in two stretches of the West and South ship canals (€3,912,000)
• Hub of Torino, section Susa-Stura, removal of bottleneck (€52,740,000)
• Italy integration of communication and surveillance (IP1) (€4,048,000)

The Netherlands

• Elimination of the bottleneck of the north-south artery A2 (E25): building the urban highway tunnel in Maastricht (€15,000,000)

Portugal

• Faro Airport Development Plan – Phase 1 (€6,016,000)

Spain

• Express Route SE-40 (Seville). Section Coria del Rio-Dos Hermanas (North and South tunnels) (€23,969,000)

Sweden

• Port infrastructure facilities in the Malmö Northern Harbour (€5,922,000)
• E6.21 Partihall Connection (€16,296,000)

United Kingdom

• Thames Estuary dredge and reclamation works to support the integrated multi-modal London Gateway port and logistics development (€14,174,000)
• A14 Corridor Traffic Management Scheme (€11,670,000)
• Felixstowe-Nuneaton Route Work (€9,234,000)