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Marco Polo is an EU funding programme which encourages the shift of freight transport from road to other, more sustainable and environmentally-friendly transport modes: rail, sea, and inland waterways. The current, second Marco Polo programme runs from 2007-13 with a budget of €450 million. At the end of 2008, the Commission found that the programme had committed only 73% of the available budget for the financial year. The eligibility requirements therefore needed to be reformed in order to encourage as many applicants as possible and to allow more and better funding of the projects.
As adopted by the Parliament, the reform provides for: facilitating participation by small enterprises and consortiums, lowering the tonne-kilometre thresholds for eligibility, doubling funding intensity (maximum grant intensity will be raised to 2 Euros per 500 tonne-kilometres shifted off the road), simplification of the application procedures, and speedier payment of the funds.
