Regulation (EC) No 1692/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 2006 establishing the second Marco Polo programme for the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system (Marco Polo II) and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 (Text with EEA relevance)

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes a financing instrument, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Marco Polo II Programme’ or ‘the Programme’ in order to reduce congestion, to improve the environmental performance of the transport system and to enhance intermodal transport, thereby contributing to an efficient and sustainable transport system which provides EU added value without having a negative impact on economic, social or territorial cohesion. The duration of the Programme shall be from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013 in order to achieve, by the end of the Programme, a traffic shift that is a substantial part of the expected yearly aggregate increase in international road freight traffic, measured in tonne-kilometres, to short sea shipping, rail and inland waterway transport or to a combination of modes of transport in which road journeys are as short as possible.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) ‘action’ means any project executed by undertakings which contributes to reducing congestion in the road freight transport system and/or to improving the environmental performance of the transport system in the territories of the Member States or participating countries; catalyst actions, modal shift actions and common learning actions may comprise several coordinated projects;

(b) ‘catalyst action’ means any innovative action aimed at overcoming significant structural barriers in the Community freight transport market which impede the efficient functioning of the markets, the competitiveness of short sea shipping, rail, or inland waterway transport, and/or the efficiency of transport chains making use of these modes, including the modification or creation of ancillary infrastructure; for the purpose of this definition, such structural barriers shall mean any non-regulatory, factual and non-temporary impediment to the proper functioning of the freight transport chain;

(c) ‘Motorways of the Sea action’ means any innovative action directly shifting freight from road to short sea shipping or a combination of short sea shipping with other modes of transport in which road journeys are as short as possible; actions of this kind may include the modification or creation of the ancillary infrastructure required in order to implement a very large-volume, high-frequency intermodal maritime transport service, including, preferably, the use of the most environmentally-friendly transport modes, such as inland waterways and rail, for hinterland freight transport and integrated door-to-door services; if possible, the resources of the outermost regions should also be integrated;

(d) ‘modal shift action’ means any action directly, measurably, substantially and immediately shifting freight from road to short sea shipping, rail, inland waterways or a combination of modes of transport in which road journeys are as short as possible, without being a catalyst action; this includes, where appropriate, actions where modal shift is brought about by the development of an existing service; the Commission shall examine the possibility of supporting ancillary infrastructure projects;

(e) ‘traffic avoidance action’ means any innovative action integrating transport into production logistics to avoid a large percentage of freight transport by road without adversely affecting production output or workforce; actions of this kind may include the modification or creation of ancillary infrastructure and equipment;

(f) ‘common learning action’ means any action aimed at improving cooperation for structurally optimising working methods and procedures in the freight transport chain, taking into account the requirements of logistics;

(g) ‘innovative action’ means any action which features elements which have hitherto not existed in a given market;

(h) ‘ancillary infrastructure’ means the necessary and sufficient infrastructure to achieve the goals of actions, including freight-passenger installations;

(i) ‘accompanying measure’ means any measure which seeks to prepare for or to support current or future actions, including dissemination activities and project monitoring and evaluation, and the collection and analysis of statistical data; measures devoted to the commercialisation of products, processes or services, marketing activities and sales promotion are not accompanying measures;

(j) ‘preparatory measure’ means any measure taken in preparation for a catalyst, Motorways of the Sea or traffic avoidance action, such as technical, operational or financial feasibility studies and equipment tests;

(k) ‘undertaking’ means any entity engaged in an economic activity, regardless of the legal status of the entity and the way in which it is financed;

(l) ‘consortium’ means any arrangement by which at least two undertakings execute together and share the risk relating to an action;

(m) ‘tonne-kilometre’ means the transport of a tonne of freight, or its volumetric equivalent, over a distance of one kilometre;

(n) ‘vehicle-kilometre’ means the movement of a truck, loaded or empty, over a distance of one kilometre;

(o) ‘close third country’ means any country not a member of the European Union with a common border with the European Union or with a coastline on a closed or semi-closed sea neighbouring the European Union;

(p) ‘freight’ means, for the purpose of the calculation of ‘tonne-kilometre’ shifted off the road, the goods transported, the intermodal transport unit plus the road vehicle, including empty intermodal transport units and empty road vehicles, in the event that these are shifted off the road.

Article 3

Scope

The Programme shall cover actions:

(a) involving the territory of at least two Member States, or

(b) involving the territory of at least one Member State and the territory of a close third country.

CHAPTER II

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS AND ACTIONS

Article 4

Eligible applicants

Article 5

Eligible actions and funding conditions

The following actions shall be eligible for funding under the Programme:

(a) catalyst actions; those aimed at improving synergies in the rail, inland waterways and short sea shipping, including Motorways of the Sea, sectors by better use of existing infrastructures in particular deserve specific attention;

(b) Motorways of the Sea actions; within the European Union such actions shall be consistent with the features of the Motorways of the Sea priority project defined in the framework of Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (⁶);

(c) modal shift actions;

(d) traffic avoidance actions;

(e) common learning actions.

Article 6

Detailed rules

Detailed rules concerning the procedure for submission and selection of actions under the Programme shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10(2).

Article 7

State aid

Community financial assistance for the actions covered by the Programme shall not prevent those actions from being granted State aid at national, regional or local level, insofar as such aid is compatible with the State aid arrangements laid down in the Treaty and within the cumulative limits established for each type of action set out in the Annex.

CHAPTER III

SUBMISSION AND SELECTION OF ACTIONS

Article 8

Submission of actions

Actions shall be submitted to the Commission in accordance with the detailed rules issued pursuant to Article 6. Submissions shall contain all the information necessary to enable the Commission to make its selection in accordance with the criteria set out in Article 9.

If required, the Commission shall provide assistance to applicants to facilitate their application process, for instance by way of an online helpdesk.

Article 9

Selection of actions for financial assistance

The actions submitted shall be evaluated by the Commission. When selecting actions for financial assistance under the Programme, the Commission shall take account of the following:

(a) the objectives referred to in Article 1;

(b) the conditions set out in the appropriate column of the Annex;

(c) the contribution of the actions to reducing road congestion;

(d) the relative environmental merits of the actions and the relative merits of the actions in terms of reduction of external costs, including their contribution to reducing negative environmental effects caused by short sea shipping, rail and inland waterway transport. Specific attention shall be paid to actions going beyond legally binding environmental requirements;

(e) the overall sustainability of the actions.

The Commission shall, after having informed the committee referred to in Article 10, adopt the decision to grant financial assistance.

The Commission shall inform the beneficiaries of its decision.

CHAPTER IV

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 10

Committee

Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 4(3) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.

Article 11

Budget

The financial envelope for the implementation of the Marco Polo II Programme, for the period 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013, shall be EUR 450 million.

Annual appropriations shall be authorised by the budgetary authority within the limits of the financial framework.

Article 12

Reserve for accompanying measures and Programme evaluation

Up to 5 % of the budget provided for in this Regulation shall be set aside for accompanying measures and independent evaluation of the implementation of Article 5.

Article 13

Protection of the European Communities' financial interests

Article 14

Evaluation

The Commission shall inform the Committee at least twice a year concerning the financial execution of the Programme and give an update of the status of all actions financed under the Programme.

The Commission shall carry out both mid-term and final evaluations of the Programme in order to assess its contribution to the objectives of Community transport policy and the effective use made of the appropriations.

The Communication referred to in paragraph 2 shall in particular deal with the following:

— the impact of this Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 923/2009 of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 September 2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 1692/2006 establishing the second ‘Marco Polo’ programme for the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system (Marco Polo II) (¹¹),

— the experience of the Executive Agency for Competition and Innovation with programme management,

— the need to differentiate between transport modes with regard to the conditions for funding, on the basis of safety, environmental performance and energy efficiency,

— the effectiveness of traffic avoidance actions,

— the need to set up demand-driven assistance at the application stage, taking into account the needs of small and micro transport enterprises,

— the recognition of economic recession as an exceptional reason for extending the duration of actions,

— the lowering of the eligibility thresholds for product-specific actions,

— the possibility of indicating the targets for minimum funding thresholds for proposed actions in terms of energy efficiency and environmental benefits in addition to tonne-kilometres shifted,

— the appropriateness of including the transport unit in the definition of the term ‘freight’,

— the availability of complete yearly overviews of actions which have been co-financed,

— the possibility of ensuring consistency between the Programme, the Logistics Action Plan and the TEN-T by taking the appropriate measures in order to coordinate the allocation of community funds, in particular for Motorways of the Sea,

— the possibility of making costs incurred in a third country eligible if the action is carried out by undertakings from a Member State,

— the need to take into account the specific characteristics of the inland waterway sector and its small- and medium-sized enterprises, for example by way of a dedicated programme for the inland waterway sector,

— the possibility of extending the Programme to neighbouring countries; and,

— the possibility of further adapting the Programme to the insular and archipelagic Member States.

Article 15

Repeal

Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 is hereby repealed, with effect from 14 December 2006.

Contracts relating to actions within the framework of Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 shall continue to be governed by that Regulation until their operational and financial closure.

Article 16

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on 14 December 2006.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX