Mr. Farfaras noted the meaning of the most recent input concerning the infrastructures of the European Cycle Route Network - EuroVelo in European Union’s decisions on the Inter-European Transport Network (TEN-T). He also mentioned the funding possibilities of those cycling routes in Greece during the upcoming period 2014-2020. Furthermore, he referred to the new programme “Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)” with a total budget of 29.3 billion euros (in the prices of 2011) from which the 23.2 billion euros are going to be invested in transportations.

Also, mr Farfaras referred to the significance of mentioning the importance of sustainable transports, cycling networks and EuroVelo network in proposals that concern the formulation of the national development strategy guidelines in the texts of the 5th Programming Period of 2014-2020. Information on the proposed regulation of the European Parliament and the European Council about the guidelines of the European Union on the development of the Inter-European Transportation Network  ((COM2011)0650/3–C7-0375/2012– 2011/0294(COD)): http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A7-2013-0012+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

According to Amendment 5, (8a) During the implementation of projects of common interest under the framework of inter-european transportation networks, the specific conditions of every plan need to be highly taken into consideration. If possible, synergies with other policies need to be fully utilised, like for example in the sectors of tourism, through the integration in constructions such as bridges or tunnels, and in infrastructures for long distance cycling as EuroVelo network.