EU Cash Could Rescue Canal Project

The EU could be ready to make a significant increase in its financial contribution to a multi-billion euro project to build a 106km, 54-metre wide canal to link the Seine and Scheldt rivers by the end of the decade, according to a senior EC official.
In 2009, its cost was estimated at €4.3 billion, to be funded through an initial public subsidy of €2.2 billion with the remainder financed by the private sector. However, the project is now thought to require €5-6 billion, leaving France seeking new sources of funding.

The EU could be ready to make a significant increase in its financial contribution to a multi-billion euro project to build a 106km, 54-metre wide canal to link the Seine and Scheldt rivers by the end of the decade, according to a senior EC official.
In 2009, its cost was estimated at €4.3 billion, to be funded through an initial public subsidy of €2.2 billion with the remainder financed by the private sector. However, the project is now thought to require €5-6 billion, leaving France seeking new sources of funding.
EU money currently accounts for just over 6% of the Seine Nord Europe Canal’s budget.
But EC Director General for Mobility and Transport, Jean-Eric Paquet, told Lloyd’s Loading List.com that there was provision for the EU to contribute 20%, or even 30% of the the total investment requirement in co-funded projects.
“However, this a long way from saying that the Seine Nord Europe Canal project would be granted this level of funding from the EU,” he said.
He underlined that it would also be competing against other projects seeking funding while another factor would be the amount of money the EU had available in its budget.
“But what we can say about the Seine Nord Europe Canal project is that it has priority status, being of strategic importance to the EU in linking the inland waterways network in the Benelux with the Greater Paris region and France’s major ports. It has the potential to become a key element in the EU’s drive to develop sustainable solutions for the transport of freight."
France has yet to make an official request for additional funding, as it is currently carrying out a review into the financial viability of the project following the uncertainty over private sector backing.
It could do so within the framework of an EU co-funding tender to be launched at the start of next year and which the EC would render judgment on in mid-2013, Paquet added.