European Commission publishes first calls for proposals under Marco Polo II Programme
The European Commission has published the first call for proposals for the creation of new freight transport services under the second Marco Polo Programme. Companies across the EU and beyond are invited to submit proposals for innovative projects seeking to fight congestion on European roads and improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system. The aim of the programme is to help companies during the high risk start-up phase of new services intended to shift freight off the road and on to short-sea shipping, rail and inland waterways. The top-ranked projects in the competitive evaluation process will be offered grant contracts of up to six years on the condition that they are sustainable. That is to say, that they can demonstrate that their non-road freight transport services will survive on the market even after they cease to receive EU financial support. The call addresses five types of actions (two of which are new to this second Marco Polo Programme): - Modal shift actions which will shift freight from the road to short-sea shipping, rail, inland waterways, or a combination of modes of transport; - Highly innovative catalyst actions aimed at overcoming structural barriers in the freight transport market in the European Union, such as low-speed freight trains or technical interoperability problems of transport modes; - Common learning actions which will improve cooperation and optimise working methods and procedures between actors in the freight transport chain, - Motorways of the Sea actions which shift freight from road to short-sea shipping or a combination of short-sea shipping and other modes of transport, offering a very large-volume, high-frequency intermodal maritime transport service. - Traffic avoidance actions which integrate transport into production logistics in order to reduce freight transport demand by road. In order to manage the last two new innovative actions while continuing to address congestion problems and demand from markets in an enlarged Europe, the budget for the 2007 call has been increased to €57 million from €35 million the previous year. The overall budget for the second Marco Polo Programme, running from 2007 to 2013, is €400 million. For more information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/marcopolo/guide_proposers/index_en.htm(opens in new window)
Countries
Greece