Priority 3: Cooperating for a
better connected central Europe
Central Europe is an important junction for European north-south and east-west transport connections. Transnational trade and transport routes rely on central Europe’s rivers, roads and railways. Today, the area hosts key European transport corridors to which many regions are physically or socio-economically connected. Connectivity between and within regions is an important factor ensuring the economic prosperity and cohesion of central Europe.
SO 3.1: Improving transport connections of rural and peripheral regions in central Europe
Why we fund this
The programme area is a relevant junction in Europe. This can strategically facilitate the participation in trade and increase competitiveness. Accessibility to larger transport corridors is, however, comparatively weak. There is a need to link especially peripheral regions to the nodes of the TEN-T core network corridors (CNC), to remove bottlenecks and to bridge missing transport links in order to ensure good accessibility across central Europe. Furthermore, there is the need to reduce transport emissions by 90% by 2050, which calls for smart and sustainable approaches to cross-border mobility, intermodality and the introduction of IT-supported solutions for mobility management.
Potential fields to be addressed by project proposals
→ Demand-responsive and flexible regional passenger transport
→ Removal of transport barriers and bottlenecks across borders and beyond
→ Multi-modal freight transport and logistic chains in rural and peripheral areas and connections to transport nodes
→ Accessibility of rural and remote areas and their connectivity to main EU transport corridors
→ Strategic regional transport and spatial planning
Funded projects
We are currently funding 100 transnational cooperation projects with a total budget of nearly 175 million EUR from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Six of these projects are cooperating to make central Europe better connected.
These projects address a wide range of topics. Below, you will find an overview of the topics, highlighting projects’ contributions to tackling key challenges across the region.
Accessibility of rural and remote areas, connectivity to main EU transport corridors
Multi-modal freight transport and logistic chains in rural and peripheral areas
Demand-responsive and flexible regional passenger transport
Strategic regional transport and spatial planning
