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New tool launched to access €2 billion of EU cycling funds
21 March 2016
by Steve Hoare
The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) has unveiled a new tool that allows users to find European Union funding for cycling-related projects.
ECF research has revealed that up to €2.3 billion of EU funds could be used for cycling-related projects with a minimum of €1.3 billion available during the current seven-year funding cycle, which expires in 2020.
“Cities often don’t realise the opportunities for EU funding,” said Ed Lancaster, Policy Officer, ECF. “They often know what they want to do but don’t know how to fund it.”
The EU Funds Monitoring Observatory will allow local governments or cycling organisations to search the €100 billion labyrinth of 200 different programming documents to find the right source of funds for cycling-related projects.
The tool allows users to narrow down their search to eligible funds relevant to a specific geographic area.
The ECF estimates that at least €1.325 billion of EU funds are available for use on cycling related projects for the period 2014-2020. This is based upon the explicit references to cycling in the documents. It believes the actual figure could be much higher with just over €2 billion available if implicit and indirect references to, for example, “green transport initiatives”, are taken into account. This is more than twice the amount available in previous funding periods.
“There is no guarantee that that amount will be spent. Our members and the regions need to apply successfully,” said Lancaster.
The ECF is running a series of webinars to train users on how to use the tool, which start at the end of March and can be found here and here.
