However, ECF is concerned that the focus on centralising EU funds risks leaving local and regional authorities out in the cold, mitigating the European impulse to invest in cycling by leaving the choice to national authorities. National and regional authorities have together made investments worth €3.2 billion for cycling projects through EU structural funds. It is crucial that these investments, which should also be acceptable to cities, keep their pace and grow in the next multiyear budget term.
ECF is also concerned that the new budget eliminates an important funding programme for climate and environmental objectives, the LIFE Programme. This has been a dedicated funding stream for actions to protect citizens from the adverse effects of climate change and to promote solutions to safeguard our climate and environment, which ECF does by promoting cycling.
Philip Amaral, ECF’s Interim CEO and Director of Policy and Development, says:
“There has been significant progress made on cycling during the last years, most notably the adoption of the landmark European Declaration on Cycling in 2024, a strategic political commitment to bolster cycling policies and actions at the EU, national, regional and local level.
The EU budget for 2028-2034 must provide for a financial foundation to fund the implementation of the commitments in that declaration. This means more targeted funding for European and national cycle route networks, new infrastructure and initiatives that invite more citizens to cycle, and more funding for cities and regions to accelerate their progress to increase cycling.”
Potential to fund cycling projects to create better transport connections in Europe
The Commission’s budget proposals feature some new initiatives that have the potential to be beneficial for cycling projects at the European level.
For example, ECF notes the Commission’s wish to double the transport budget of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to €51.5 billion. The Commission would seek to use this budget to complete the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), by filling in the network’s missing links, cross-border rail connections, and creating connections to the EU’s outermost regions.
In ECF’s view, funds within this budget should be used to build high-quality cycle infrastructure along TEN-T roads, railways or inland waterways, for example. Currently,
TEN-T infrastructure acts as a barrier for many regional and national cycle route networks. But in the new TEN-T Regulation, adopted in 2024, national authorities planning to build or renovate TEN-T infrastructure will need to incorporate infrastructure for active mobility. Thus, a doubled transport budget for CEF could help this happen across Europe.
Possibilities to improve cycling at a national and regional level
The Commission proposes combining 14 existing EU structural funding programmes into a new fund: National and Regional Partnership Plans, or NRPPs. It would integrate the European Regional and Development Fund as well as the Cohesion Fund, for example – the former accounts for 95% of Member State investments in cycling projects, and the latter 5%, according to an
analysis ECF published in 2023.
Approximately €3.2 billion is set to be invested in cycling projects across Europe in the current 2021-2027 EU funding period. This is a 30 percent increase from the previous period.
ECF welcomes the Commission’s intention to earmark €865 billion for NRPPs. That budget should be used to keep pace with structural fund investments in cycling and increase it in the coming multiyear financial period.
The Commission proposes to include
€50 billion for the Social Climate Fund within the new NRPP framework. As we have
written elsewhere, the Social Climate Fund presents a very good opportunity for Member States to budget for cycling projects to alleviate citizens suffering from transport poverty, and to enable cycling as a solution for citizens to transition away from energy intensive road transport.
In ECF’s view, new funding under the NRPP system should be used to help Member States fund the creation of national cycling strategies, for example, a crucial component for any country that wants to increase the modal share of cycling in their transport system. It should also lead to national and regional investments in bigger cycling projects, such as cycle highway networks, tunnels or bridges that can provide continuity for existing cycle networks, and completion of EuroVelo.
There are at least two aspects of the NRPPs that warrant caution. First, allocating more power to national governments to decide how structural funds are used risks sidelining regions, who in the past have used structural funds for cycling projects. It also puts cycling investments at risk to shifting political winds at the national level. Secondly, by centralising EU funding, cities and other local municipalities may be left without resources to boost cycling for their citizens.
Increasing the share of cycling in local municipalities is where big gains can be won for more sustainable mobility and the hugely beneficial impacts it creates for society, from improved road safety for everyone, cleaner air, quieter and more liveable neighbourhoods and streets.
A new European Competitiveness Fund – help or hindrance for cycling and civil society funding?
Like the NRPPs, this new competitiveness fund would combine 14 existing EU funding programmes into a single fund worth €234.3 billion, based on four pillars: clean transition and industrial decarbonisation; health, biotech, agriculture and bioeconomy; digital leadership; resilience, security, defence industry and space.
We do note that the Commission proposes to use the competitiveness fund for a variety of mobility solutions, such as:
- Clean, multimodal and digitised transport solutions
- The decarbonisation of the transport sector
- Smart mobility solutions and infrastructure
Though it does not explicitly refer to active mobility, the competitiveness fund could potentially be a way to provide direct funding support to cities and regions who are aspiring to make a more prominent place for cycling in their road transport share. This would be a very good way to ensure there is funding to enable the implementation of commitments in the European Declaration on Cycling.
Elsewhere in the competitiveness fund, ECF is concerned about the effect it would have on the LIFE Programme, which for several years has been the EU’s flagship climate and environmental funding programme. It has provided project funding and operating grants to civil society organisations who promote a variety of actions to protect the climate and environment. ECF has been a grateful beneficiary of LIFE operating funding for years.
The new fund would entirely repeal the LIFE Regulation as of 1 January 2028 and fold in its existing activities under the new competitiveness fund. At this stage it is unclear what would happen to the LIFE Programme’s operating grants. But it is clear that the LIFE Programme, a crucial funding stream used explicitly to achieve climate and environmental objectives, needs to stay.
Philip Amaral says:
“The LIFE Programme’s operating grant scheme for NGOs has come under fire this year by far-right MEPs based on a rationale that is completely out of touch with reality. LIFE’s operating grants have been just a tiny shred of the EU’s overall budget, but have provided tremendous support to NGOs working to protect Europe’s climate, environment, biodiversity and to raise awareness on the benefits of sustainable and active mobility, which ECF does as a grant beneficiary.
The LIFE Programme contributes significantly to the EU’s commitment to democracy and public engagement, and to the EU’s climate goals. It’s very important that this programme does not become lost in the new EU budget.”
How does sustainable tourism feature in the Commission’s budget package?
Tourism does feature in the European Competitiveness Fund proposal, which refers to supporting the sustainability and clean transition of SMEs, including those that work in the tourism sector.
The proposed new fund also links that ambition to supporting “…sustainable and safe mobility and sustainable tourism in cities, rural areas, communities and buildings.”
Thus, we would envision that the competitiveness fund could be used to boost cycling tourism – which contributes €44 billion to Europe’s economy according to a 2012 analysis – in regions and municipalities that run along EuroVelo routes, for example. We also welcome that the fund can be used to support cities and rural areas, but this would need to be made clearer in the upcoming negotiations. This funding could also support the implementation of the future European Sustainable Tourism Strategy for which a
consultation is currently open for contributions.
Going forward: what ECF will advocate for in the new EU budget
Though ECF is optimistic about elements of the EU budget proposal, we also recognise that champions for sustainable and active mobility must make their voices loud and clear during the next two years of negotiations to ensure that the budget creates a meaningful space to financially support cycling between 2028-2034.
ECF will want to ensure that the new EU budget:
- Provides direct financial support at the EU, national, regional and urban level to realise the commitments of the European Declaration on Cycling, the EU’s flagship strategy to increase cycling across the Union.
- Provides for distinct, ring-fenced, budgets that have an explicit purpose to strengthen priority areas that relate to cycling, such as climate and environment, urban mobility, and sustainable tourism.
- Uses the doubled CEF transport budget to complete missing links in cycle route networks that overlap with the TEN-T network, and ensures that new TEN-T infrastructure incorporates active mobility infrastructure at all phases.
- Financially supports regions and municipalities with improving cycle networks, such as EuroVelo, to facilitate sustainable cycling tourism and increase their usage by recreational users and commuters.
- Uses NRPPs to fund both national and regional governments with cycling projects, such as national cycling strategies and regional cycle route networks, or large cycle infrastructure projects such as cycle highways and bridges. Authorities at all levels must have the opportunity to access funding to realise their ambitions for more cycling.
- Utilises the European Competitiveness Fund to financially support cycling projects and investments at the urban and rural level, recognising that cycling can make an enormous impact in the improvement of urban mobility in any city.
- Uses the European Competitiveness Fund to continue to provide operating grant support to civil society organisations who align with the EU’s climate, environment and sustainable mobility goals, as a continuation of the LIFE Programme which to this day contributes significantly to effective and democratic policymaking in the EU.
As the EU enters a crucial two-year phase of budget negotiations, ECF will continue to advocate for a financial framework that truly supports cycling as a climate, health, and mobility solution. The decisions made in the coming years will determine whether the EU builds on recent progress—or misses a pivotal opportunity to transform Europe for the better.
