After decades of slow progress in interconnecting Europe’s transport and energy infrastructure, the EU is placing this issue among its 2020 priorities, and a Connecting Europe Facility (50 billion EUR) is proposed for the 2014-2020 Financial Framework. The financing requirements for such investments are tremendous – 1 trillion EUR for energy networks and 500 billion EUR for transport. A large part will come from private sources, but the European Union has an important role to play by providing an adequate regulatory framework, as well as providing financial support.

The ALDE conference entitled "Can we finance Europe's major infrastructures?" aims at discussing these issues in the context of the upcoming proposals of the European Commission - the "Connecting Europe" facility within the Multiannual Financial Framework, the Europe 2020 Project bond initiative and a proposal for a regulation on energy infrastructure. 

In case of difficulty contact: elke.pingel@europarl.europa.eu