Today the European Parliament Committee for Regional Development (REGI) adopted a proposal for a revised ‘European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund Regulation 2021 – 2027’. The good news is that cycling is explicitly mentioned twice in the REGI proposal, forming a solid basis for Member States and Regions to include cycling projects in their new Operational Programmes, starting in 2021.

Why is this important?

Regional policy has one of the largest pots of EU funding to spend: in the Commission proposal, 220 billion Euro will be spent on ERDF, and another 40 billion on the Cohesion Fund. In the current Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU will have spent about 1.5 billion Euro on walking and cycling projects, meaning active mobility represents about 1.5 % of all EU investments on transport. In the EU Cycling Strategy blueprint document, the objective of doubling that amount to 3 billion Euro over the next MFF has been set.

What changes in comparison to the current ERDF and Cohesion Fund Regulation?

The current ERDF and Cohesion Fund Regulation, 2014 – 2020, did not make any explicit reference to cycling at all. The REGI Committee has now proposed to include cycling in RECITAL 10 of the 2021-2027 regulation and confirmed the Commission proposal to keep in Annex 1 the Output Indicator ‘RCO 58 - Dedicated cycling infrastructure provided’ and the Result Indicator ‘RCR 64 - Annual users of dedicated cycling infrastructure’. Crucially in article 2 the REGI Committee voted in favour of, “enhancing green infrastructure in functional urban areas, developing small-scale multimodal urban mobility as part of a net zero emission economy”. The REGI proposal is not perfect, but a major step forward compared to the current regulation.

What are the next steps?

The REGI proposal will have to be confirmed by the European Parliament plenary session in March 2019 and then enter into interinstitutional (trilogue) negotiations with the Member States and the European Commission. Given its importance, it is expected that the file will still be concluded before this parliamentary term comes to an end in May 2019.

ECF EU Funds for cycling campaign

In 2012-2014, ECF ran the ‘EU Funds for Cycling Campaign’ (or in short, the ‘ECF 6 billion campaign’) to inform regional and national authorities about the possibilities to unlock EU funding for cycle projects. With the revised ERDF Regulation almost in place, this will be the kick-start for the renewed ECF 6bn campaign. Our overall objective stays the same: to inform and convince as many regional and national authorities as possible to include cycle projects in their Operational Programmes.

Our first campaign highlight: a joint event on funding opportunities on April 3rd here in Brussels, together with the Romanian EU Presidency! More detailed information will follow very soon!

Notes:

• ECF EU Funds for cycling campaign (for 2014 – 2020 period):  https://ecf.com/what-we-do/european-funding/eu-funds-cycling-campaign

• EU Funds Observatory for Cycling (for 2014 – 2020 period): https://ecf.com/what-we-do/european-funding/eu-funds-observatory-cycling

• EU Cycling Strategy: https://ecf.com/sites/ecf.com/files/EUCS_full_doc_small_file.pdf

• ERDF and Cohesion Fund Regulation 2021 – 2027: https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=&reference=2018/0197(COD)