Forty-five European transport associations, with the notable exception of the European Shipowners' Association ECSA, strongly urged EU Member States to strengthen European funding for transport under the future budget of the European Union. In particular, they invited to increase the budget of the future Connecting Facility Europe (CEF) to at least €100 billion.

In an open letter to EU Member States, the associations stressed that the European transport sector continues to Faced with underfunding and financial shortages, and specifying that high value-added transport projects for the company does not always generate financial returns necessary to cover investments, highlighted that the funds are needed to support those projects that are crucial for the achievement of European strategic objectives, but which could have significant financial shortfalls. In addition, they have remarked that European funding also acts as a catalyst to attract additional funding from the private sector and from the state one.

The associations noted that if the Mechanism for Connecting Europe has proven to be a crucial and to support and prioritise high value-added investments, however, has been weakened by a very high number of applications to join in the face of an insufficient budget. Therefore, organisations that European transport sector have called on the Member States and the European Commission to reverse this trend the continued underfunding of the sector and setting targets high.