The Council and the European Parliament have reached a compromise on a new version of the Marco Polo II programme, which will be given the final seal of approval by the Member States at one of the next Council meetings.

Marco Polo is a funding programme for projects that shift part of the volume of international freight transport from the road to rail, inland waterways and short sea shipping. The objective of the programme is to help decrease the number of trucks on the roads and thus reduce traffic congestion as well as the negative impact of road traffic on people’s health and the environment. However, participation by inland waterway transport has always been difficult, owing to the high thresholds. Now the European Parliament have paved the way for the thresholds for waterway transport to be lowered to 13 million tonne-km a year. The eligible costs for ancillary infrastructure will be raised to 20%. This should help the micro size businesses in the inland navigation sector to participate in this European grant programme. The European Parliament has also followed INE’s recommendation to advocate for an inland waterway grant programme geared to the special needs of the sector.So far, no more than 73% of funds allocated for specific time periods has been used. This is mainly due to the lengthy, non-transparent and costly administrative procedures involved when applications are processed.

The EU hopes this is now going to change. The new agreement between the EU institutions will extend the cap on the duration of projects, double the financial support (from 1 to 2 EUR per 500 tonne-kms), and also reduce the thresholds for funding projects aimed at shifting from one type of transport to another, which is all the more important in a time of economic downturn. Moreover, the administrative procedure imposed on applicants will be made easier and quicker.

≡ INE Marco Polo statement
≡ European Commission Marco Polo website