Scope of work

• Project Screening: Assist stakeholders with project screening to assess their viability and suitability for EU-grant finance.
• Project development: Support stakeholders from project pre-feasibility and feasibility stages through to final grant application;
• Project appraisal: Undertake final assessment of projects and relevant documents prior to submission of the grant application to DG-REGIO;
• Horizontal Support: Provide guidance on horizontal issues including State Aid, CBA and funding gap methodology;
• Training and capacity development: Provide workshops on key project and horizontal issues for project stakeholders, active participation at conferences organised by Ministries of beneficiary countries.

JASPERS assignments in the railways, airports and ports sector

In 2010 JASPERS worked on 130 assignments in the ports, airports and rail sector, supporting projects with an estimated investment cost of approximately EUR 25 billion. As in previous years, the rail sector provided the largest share of JASPERS assignments (75) with airports (15) and ports (14) representing a similar proportion to 2009. 21 assignments were completed, 18 of them supporting major projects for which grant applications were submitted to the European Commission. Six major rail projects were approved by the Commission during the year (two in the Czech Republic and one each in Romania, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia), for a total project cost of EUR 1.3 billion.

Selected Highlights

• Czech Republic: JASPERS has contributed to the preparation of funding requests for road and rail schemes and provided support to the stakeholders on methodological aspects including cost-benefit analysis and advice on environmental issues.
• Romania: Assistance with project development of a number of major road and rail projects on the TENT-T network prior to submission for funding application.
• Bulgaria: Support from feasibility through to funding application for all major road and rail projects.Slovakia: Ongoing assistance with the finalisation of feasibility studies, Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and applications for EU financing for 16 rail and road projects.
• Poland: Support for 21 roads projects,14 rail projects and 6 airport projects and preparation of guidelines for Cost benefit analysis (CBA) for transport projects.
• Latvia: Assistance with preparing the funding application for the Riga Freeport project which foresees to transfer port operations from the city centre.
• Malta: Assistance with the preparation of two funding applications for the improvement of the TEN-T road network
•  Horizontal: JASPERS has provided guidance, following consultations with DG REGIO and DG COMP, on the handling of State aid and funding gap methodology in rail and port projects.