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24.1.2024

23.01.2024

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

Committee on Budgets

Subject: Opinion on Guidelines for the 2025 Budget – Section III (2023/2220(BUI))

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on the Guidelines for the 2025 Budget – Section III (2023/2220(BUI))

Dear Mr Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on ForeignTransport Affairsand Tourism has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. At its meeting of 2829 November 2023, the committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter.

The Committee on ForeignTransport Affairsand Tourism considered the matter at its meeting of 23 January 2024. At that meeting, it decided to call on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution.

Yours sincerely,

David McAllister

(signed) Karima Delli

SUGGESTIONS

1. Notes that the majority of external action spending is concentrated under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe (NDICI-Global Europe) and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III); reiterates the urgent need to increase funding, particularly in crisis regions where the needs are greatest; reiterates therefore its call for a substantial increase in Heading 6 to address the various challenges in the neighbourhood, invest in partnerships and strengthen the geopolitical position of the EU; deplores the fact that the MFF review has not been completed and deems this to be insufficient; underlines the vital importance of a stronger, more unified and coherent communication by the EU institutions with regards to the funds provided by the Union;

The Committee on Transport and Tourism calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

2. Emphasises the need for continued efforts to finance the immediate funding needs for Ukraine, following the unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression by Russia; therefore welcomes the Ukraine Facility for a total amount of up to EUR 50 billion for the period 2024 to 2027 and urges the European Council to find agreement;

1. Welcomes the agreement associating Ukraine to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme that enables Ukrainian project promoters to apply for the EU funding for projects of common interest in the transport, energy and digital realms, further improving Ukraine’s connectivity to its EU neighbours that support Ukraine’s integration into the EU Single Market and promoting growth, jobs and competitiveness;

3. Reiterates that an adequate level of funding should be maintained for the Southern Neighbourhood in 2025 to support political, economic and social reforms in the region; highlights the pressing need to vastly increase humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza strip due to the unfolding humanitarian crisis, matched with a prudent distribution mechanism fully in line with EU priorities to prevent criminal use of European funds;

2. Stresses that CEF Transport, which ensures interconnected, safe, smart and sustainable European transport system and infrastructure as well as all the new Union priorities, is a vital tool for the European economy and the Single Market, therefore, a sufficient financial envelop must be a priority; in this regard, welcomes the increase for CEF Transport in 2024 budget in order to strengthen the transport infrastructure, however, stresses that CEF Transport budget line has to further increase significantly to reflect the cuts from the previous years; takes notice of the massive investment needs for decarbonisation of transport and continued rise of the construction and raw material prices, weighing on the new transport and infrastructure projects; welcomes the integration of the Ukrainian transport projects and enhanced military mobility; in this respect, stresses the key priority of completion of the TEN-T network and extension of its corridors towards Ukraine, Moldova and the other partners in the Eastern Neighbourhood;

4. Insists on continuous and sustained financial and administrative support to the accession countries; recalls the need to upgrade the existing accession tools, their funding and conditionality with an improved monitoring mechanism in all fields underlined in recent EU evaluation reports to speed up beneficiaries’ transformation and sustainable incremental progress towards EU membership which achieving better compliance with EU norms, with due attention to rule of law reforms, for a more seamless accession; in this context insists on a mid-term review of the IPA III, increasing accession-related support for the Western Balkans and the inclusion of Moldova and Ukraine among its beneficiaries;

3. Reiterates that, in light of the illegal, unjustified Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the drastically increasing security threats to the Union, military mobility budget is necessary more than ever; in this context, welcomes the increase for military mobility, however, calls on the Commission to present a sustainable solution that goes beyond the Emergency Instruments; calls on restoring the total budget for military mobility to EUR 6.5 billion over 7 years, as initially foreseen; calls for increased capacity of the infrastructure and optimisation of its use both for civilian and military purposes; stresses that further efforts are necessary to identify the bottlenecks in the physical transport infrastructure of the Member States and to reduce the gaps between the TEN-T and the EU military networks, including by securing funds under the CEF Transport Military Mobility instrument to support the dual-use projects; calls to focus on ensuring the most effective use of the infrastructure when military forces need to move; calls therefore for the adequate budget envelope that meets the strategic needs, ensures high resilience of the infrastructure and supports technologies and access to energy, so that military forces can move substantial capacities within a very short notice, contributing to a well-connected military mobility network with shorter and more secure reaction times;

5. Underlines the need for the DG NEAR and the European External Action Service to be provided with adequate financial and human resources in order to promote peace, prosperity, security, and the EU values and interests in its neighbourhood and across the globe; while adhering to their own commitments on coherent representation and efficient use of resources; recalls that their administrative expenditure should be covered under the Heading 7.

4. Calls for action to ensure that the funding for the European transport agencies and joint undertakings matches their level of responsibility;

5. Commends the result achieved under the Single European Sky (SES) Air Traffic Management (ATM) Research (SESAR) project – the technological pillar of the Commission’s SES initiative – aimed at modernising ATM and calls to secure the funding that would match its ambitious agenda;

6. Takes notice of the military aviation in Europe that operates in hundreds of military areas and dozens of military airfields; points out that approximately 30% of European military flights adhere to general air traffic rules, while the remainder represents operational air traffic; reminds that military flights are carried out for a wide variety of reasons, such as training exercises, national security (including sovereignty missions) and management of cross-border crises; emphasises for this reason that extensive military involvement in SESAR solutions is paramount to ensure that effective military missions and use of airspace can be aligned with other uses of airspace across Europe;

7. Calls to make it up for the cut in funding to the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) as it plays a key role in reducing CO2 emissions per passenger from air transport and in ensuring a sufficient contribution to the climate neutrality by 2050;

8. Stresses a particular need to ensure the right level of resources to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to guarantee a high level of safe and sustainable air transport worldwide and to comply with the decarbonisation objectives while facing, among other things, the challenge of certifying innovative technologies and of dealing with critical situations; commends the guidance that EASA provided to the aviation sector throughout the COVID-19 crisis;

9. Calls for an increase in the budget of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to support the implementation of the newly adopted FuelEU maritime initiative and other responsibilities that may derive from the revision to the agency’s mandate;

10. Insists that the budget of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) must be set at least as high as the budgets of the other transport-related agencies; emphasises the importance of ensuring that ERA has sufficient means to act as efficient authority, particularly with regard to the implementation of the 4th Railway Package; reminds of the role of ERA in achieving the lasting shift from road to rail together with the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking; furthermore, stresses that funding to the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking must be increased significantly, in line with the Union’s strategic priority of shifting to rail; calls to provide additional support for completion of TEN-T, as well as for implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) and the cross-border sections;

11. Welcomes the agreement reached on 30 December 2023 by the EU Member States on lifting air and maritime internal border controls with Romania and Bulgaria; urges the Commission to analyse all possible options to defend the right of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to free movement, ensuring seamless road transport and mobility between Romania and Bulgaria and the rest of the Union to make certain that the Single Market works for all; calls on the Member States to agree on full application of the Schengen acquis in Romania and Bulgaria and to advance discussions in order to lift controls at land borders as soon as possible;

12. Calls for a dedicated EU funding to support sustainable forms of tourism; calls on the Commission to propose a crisis management mechanism to ensure that the tourism sector is adequately prepared for future crises; reiterates its call for creation of a European Agency for Tourism responsible for providing technical and administrative support to micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to increase their ability to access and make use of the EU funding and financial instruments.

13. Recalls the transport workforce shortages in the EU; calls in this regard to ensure a sufficient support to safety and good working conditions of transport workers as well as to guarantee financing of safe and secure truck parking areas across the EU;

14. Stresses that in 2025, sufficient financial resources should be dedicated specifically to the rural areas across the EU Member States, to complete the missing transport links and to improve the mobility of rural population as well as the development of rural tourism and economy.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.