The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) supports trans-European networks and infrastructures which fill in the missing links of Europe’s energy, transport and telecommunications sectors. A budget of €870 million is earmarked for trans-European digital services for 2014-2020.

Supported projects facilitate cross-border interaction between public administrations, businesses and citizens by deploying Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs). The overall objective is to create a European ecosystem of interoperable digital services that make the Digital Single Market work in practice.

The 2017 calls will award €77 million in the form of grants for generic services. They will help European public
administrations and businesses to support Member States’ DSIs to operate with each other across borders. Please refer to the 2017 CEF Telecom Work Programme for the detailed objectives of each DSI and call area.

It is expected that on 28 June 2017 the 2017-3 CEF Telecom call will be opened. Expected, because the time frame is set on ‘indicative’, meaning that the opening can be rescheduled to a later date. That is also what happened with the previous e-invoicing CFP. The e-invoicing CFP budget is also set at an indicative €10 million. Indicative, but still: substantial. The indicative deadline is 28 November.

More information:

• all the information about 2017 CEF Telecom general objectives and actions planned this year can be found in the Work Programme (Annex to the Commission Implementing Decision)
• CEF Telecom 2017 funding opportunities brochure
• 2017-1 CEF Telecom Virtual Info Day – 28 February

• Frequently Asked Questions