The European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) has opened its latest call for proposals. EU Member States, international organisations, and public and private bodies from the EU, Ukraine and Moldova can apply for transport project funding. A lot of money is allocated to rail, but passengers could profit most.
Through CEF funding, the EU aims to support projects that contribute to completing and modernising the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). The 2026 CEF transport call covers several areas, including rail, military mobility and inland ports.
A large share of the CEF call budget is available for rail projects. Money is allocated to rail in two calls: a shared call with inland waterways (COREGEN) and one dedicated to rail (CORECOEN).
The stated rail objectives of both calls are identical. Funding is available for projects to build or upgrade cross-border and missing TEN-T links. It also seeks to improve connections between rail and other modes of transport, such as inland waterways and maritime transport. This includes port–hinterland connections.
Freight or passengers?
On the basis of these objectives, it sounds like freight transport comes first in this funding package. However, the CEF executive body CINEA says that high-speed rail will instead get priority. This is primarily beneficial to passenger operations. The prioritisation of high-speed rail is in line with an earlier European Commission communication dated 5 November 2025.
Key necessary rail infrastructure upgrades ERTMS and FRMCS components are notably excluded from the funding round.
It is not immediately clear how much money is available to rail. There is 260 million euros in the CORECOEN budget, which is rail-only. An additional budget of 350 million euros is shared among rail and inland waterways.
Dual-use infrastructure
Military mobility also features prominently in the new CEF call, albeit less than rail alone. The EU allocated 130 million euros to civilian-military dual-use projects. While the focus of CEF support will be on the four EU military mobility priority corridors (North Sea-Baltic, Rhine-Alpine, Atlantic, and East-Med), other sections of both the TEN-T network and the military mobility network will also be eligible. Supported projects need to be accessible to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis, adds CINEA.
