EU invests over €1.2 billion in cross-border infrastructure contributing to build our Energy Union and to boost competitiveness

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The Commission will allocate almost €1.25 billion in grants from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to 41 cross-border energy infrastructure projects, which have obtained the status of Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest (PCIs and PMIs) in 2024 under the Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) policy framework.

This is the largest call for proposals under the current CEF Energy programme, both in terms of applications received and funding awarded and goes beyond the call’s initial indicative budget of €850 million. It is also the first call under the revised TEN-E Regulation which includes hydrogen and offshore electricity grid projects. 

As underlined by the Draghi report, such cross-border energy infrastructure investments are key to securing Europe’s competitiveness. They will contribute to the EU’s goals of integrating energy markets and decarbonising the energy system. 

Selected projects

Overall, the funding is allocated for 5 works proposals and for 36 studies. Nearly €750 million of the funding is earmarked for 8 electricity grid projects including offshore and smart electricity grids. The largest grant, of €645 million, will support the Bornholm Energy Island project for the construction of an innovative, first-of-a-kind hybrid interconnector in the Baltic Sea that allows both to link Denmark and Germany and to integrate 3 GW of offshore windfarm capacity. Another grant for construction works of almost €33 million will go to Danube InGrid, a cross-border smart electricity project between Hungary and Slovakia that will integrate renewable energy and more efficiently balance the system. The other 6 projects, located in Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Slovakia, and Spain, will receive grants for support studies.

To help decarbonise EU industry, hydrogen infrastructure will benefit from grants for 21 development studies amounting to over €250 million. It will help to alleviate investment risks associated with this nascent market and complement the hydrogen policy framework introduced in the Hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package. The grants are intended for projects in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden: notably the BarMar-H2med project between Spain and France, the backbone projects in Italy, Portugal and Spain, and the hydrogen corridors and routes in the Baltic region.

Additionally, funding worth €250 million will support the construction of 3 projects and the financing of 9 preparatory studies for CO₂ infrastructure. The Prinos storage facility in Northern Greece will be awarded almost €120 million, thus contributing to the first carbon capture and storage value chain in the South-Eastern Mediterranean region. A second grant, for works worth €55 million, is destined for construction works of the North Sea L10 CO2 storage facility on the Dutch continental shelf. A third grant, for works of just below €12 million, will be awarded to the Norne CO2 facility in Denmark. CEF-funded CO₂ projects are set to contribute to the 2030 target of 50 million tonnes of annual CO₂ injection capacity as underlined in the Net Zero Industry Act.

Next steps

This funding decision follows the 2024 call for CEF funding. Following the Commission’s evaluation of applications, Member States gave a positive vote to the Commission’s proposal following the CEF Coordination Committee of 28 January 2025. After this positive vote, the formal adoption of the award decision will follow in the coming weeks. The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) will then prepare grant agreements with the beneficiaries. The next CEF Energy call for proposals for energy infrastructure is planned for 2025.

List of proposals selected for grants in the field of the trans-European energy infrastructure under the Connecting Europe Facility following the call for proposals launched on 11 April 2024