We’ve set ourselves a pretty ambitious task: we want to see the EuroVelo Network more or less complete by 2020. That means over 70,000 kilometres of bicycles routes criss-crossing Europe.

Inevitably, one of the first questions that springs to mind is how much will all this cost? We estimate that it comes with a price tag of 1.5 – 2.5 billion Euros.  This may sound a lot but it’s important to put this in context. According to a European Parliament Study the completed EuroVelo network will generate an estimated 5 billion Euros every year, meaning the network would have already repaid itself twice over within a year of completion.

Getting Funding From TEN-T

For those that aren’t familiar with EU talk, TEN-T is an EU policy area supporting trans-European transport infrastructure developments considered to be strategically important. Getting Eurovelo included into this network is essential as doing so would mean it is eligible for the related funding. ECF is therefore lobbying hard at the moment to try and ensure that it is included within the next funding period (2014-2020).

Thankfully the European Parliament has officially supported including EuroVelo into the TEN-T as recently as December. And they’re not the only ones, several Member States have also voiced their support too. By combing the might of the Parliament with European bicycle advocacy, we’re hopeful that the European Commission will include it in the TEN-T Regulations for the next period.

Promising Signs

Things are currently looking very promising.  On Tuesday (May 8) at a hearing held in the European Parliament, several MEPs raised the issue of including EuroVelo in the TEN-T.  Herald Ruijters, a Director in the department within the Commission responsible for transport (DG MOVE), confirmed that “cycling should be integrated to the TEN-T, we should discuss how.”

Including EuroVelo in the TEN-T and unlocking this funding would be a game-changer, bringing us closer to our dream of completing the European cycle route network by 2020!

Further Reading

Please find below copies of the briefing note that we have prepared for MEPs and also our proposed amendments to the draft TEN-T Guidelines

Including EuroVelo in the TEN-T Briefing Paper

Proposed Amendments to the TEN-T Guidelines

The workshop will address the main issues that are important when creating cycling routes and will try and capture the knowledge of local entrepreneurs and state institutions as well as the experience of foreign experts.  The invited speakers include Ms Gita Pāvule (from the Latvian Ministry of Economics), Kristīne Rasiņa (from the Latvian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development), Rein Lepik from the Estonian National EuroVelo Coordinator Vanta Aga and the ECF’s Director of EuroVelo, Cycling Tourism and Regional Policy, Adam Bodor.

After the workshop there will be a 30 km cycling study tour.

Languages of the workshop will be Latvian, English and Russian.  To obtain more information and / or to register for the event please click here.

The event is being coordinated by the Vidzeme Tourism Association as part of the Central Baltic Cycling Project, which is part-funded by the Central Baltic Interreg IV A Programme 2007 – 2013.

Times are tough in Europe when it comes to funding projects and politicians are increasingly willing to cut funding in “non-essential” areas. They should be reminded that funding for transport is essential.

From 2007-2013, transport received €60 billion in funding. There has been signs that some European transport funding streams will be slashed, and in some cases removed from the 2014-2020 budgetary period. The European Cyclists’ Federation, along with a host of other transport groups is demanding that €32 billion is safeguarded.

You can read a copy of the open letter below

32 Billion Open Letter European Transport Industry

The Importance of Transport

“Transport is the backbone of growth; it creates wealth and employment. It is the bedrock of any national, or indeed regional, economy,” stated Siim Kallas in a speech earlier this year at the National University of Singapore.

In our joint open letter, it’s made clear just how important it is to the economy :

“The transport industry within the EU directly employs 10 million people in the EU and counts for about 5% of GDP. The EU White paper notes that by 2050, the EU will say 80% rise in freight activity and 51% in passenger transport.”

There’s little doubt that failing to invest will harm Europe’s growth prospects.

The EuroVelo Network is a pan European network of cycle routes across Europe. With over 70,000 kilometres of bicycle routes, it will need substantial EU funding for completion by 2020.

What About Cycling?

The potential of cycling for transport, especially in times of budgetary constraints should not be forgotten. It’s cheaper, has a higher return on investment and is sustainable. When it comes to cycling tourism, the economic benefits are huge. Cycle tourism across Europe is estimated to bring in more than €54 billion per annum. Once completed, the EuroVelo network will generate an estimated €5 billion in direct revenue.

Up until recently, politicians haven’t given cycling the funding it deserves. From 2007 until 2013, only 0.7% of EU transport infrastructure funding has been earmarked for cycling.

Thankfully there are signs that change is on the way. The European Parliament voted in December last year to include EuroVelo into the Ten-T network. If the network is accepted later this year, this would mean that cycling infrastructure is eligible for billions in funding.

For the Eurovelo Network to be completed by 2020, we’re going to need €1.5 – 2.5 billion. But considering the massive return on investment, it’s a very, very safe investment. The European institutions should remember this when laying out the next transport budget.

This article was originally published on www.ecf.com.

The all-day event will feature presentations and workshops focusing on some of the key issues relating to Greenways, EuroVelo routes and cycling tourism.

This will be followed on the Thursday (27/09/12) by the annual National EuroVelo Coordination Centres and Coordinators meeting, which itself will form part of the annual Congress of the French National EuroVelo Coordination Centre, Départements et Régions cyclables.  So, it will be a great opportunity for taking part of three cycling events in Nantes!  Further details relating to all three events to be made available shortly via www.EuroVelo.org. and www.aevv-egwa.org.

Please note that EuroVelo 6 – Atlantic – Black Sea runs through Nantes, whilst EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route passes not far away, so it could be good opportunity to combine the events with a bit of cycle touring!

Taking place in the huge exhibition halls of the Messe Berlin, the ITB brings together most of the main travel organisations and companies operating in Europe and thus is a fantastic opportunity to network with the key figures in that industry.  Although the EuroVelo routes are not only for use by cycle tourists, they can make up a large percentage of the users on some sections. Therefore, the EuroVelo Management Team took the opportunity to meet with national and regional tourism boards and agencies, particularly in countries that are do not currently do much to promote cycling tourism.  Lots of useful contacts were made and these will be passed on to the relevant National EuroVelo Coordination Centres and Coordinators.

The fair is split into two sections with the first three days being for the trade and the final two days (the Saturday and Sunday) open to the public.  On the Friday, a EuroVelo workshop was held for people in the tourism industry, introducing EuroVelo, some of the individual routes and recent projects.  Presentations were given by Jesper Pørksen of the Danish Cyclists’ Federation (DCF), Melanie Wicht Matas of Euregio Rhein-Waal, Michael Cramer MEP and Daniel Mourek of Nadace Partnerstvi.  The programme and some of the presentations (in German) can be viewed below:

EuroVelo ITB Workshop Programme

EuroVelo Presentation Berlin Handouts

EuroVelo 13 Presentation Berlin Handouts

The EuroVelo stand in the Adventure Hall was very popular throughout the fair with inquiries made about how to develop cycle routes, the possibilities of cycling certain sections of the network and lots of interest in the tourism productsthat EuroVelo will be preparing during 2012 with the support of the European Union.

All in all it was a successful few days in the German capital and it is planned that EuroVelo will return again in 2013.

The grant was approved by the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, which is one of the departments within the European Commission and is responsible for tourism.  Last year the co-financing was put towards (amongst other things) the renewal of the National EuroVelo Coordination Centres and Coordinators network, the writing and publishing of the EuroVelo Strategy and Guidance on the Route Development Process documents, the two EuroVelo workshops held in Brussels and the development of this website, which is why you will see the EU flag over on the left side of this page!  This time the two main outputs are the development of EuroVelo.com – the website for people who wish to cycle the routes – and a new EuroVelo overview map.

The ECF is the project leader with the other project partners being:

FIAB (IT)
Nadace Partnerstvi (CZ)
Sustrans (UK)
Toerisme Vlaanderen (BE)
Vidzeme Tourism Association (LT)

The kick off meeting was held alongside the ITB Berlin in March and we will keep you informed with how the project progresses over the next 12 months.

The project to develop the route is called Neighbours for Cycling and is co-funded by the European Union under the cross-border programme ‘European Territorial Cooperation Objective Austria-Czech Republic 2007-2013′.

The event will start at 9:30am in Nový Přerov in the Czech Republic with the formal opening of the path.  This will be followed by a bike ride, which will head initially to Mikulov, before crossing the border into Austria and passing through Ottenthal before arriving at Galgenberg (in the direction of Wildendürnbach) where there will be a raffle and refreshments available.

All are welcome to attend.  The organisers say that they want to “ride at a very leisurely pace through the peaceful and lovely countryside of the Czech-Austrian border area at the beautifully renovated bike path.”  Which sounds good to us!

The development of the cycle path is a good a example how to use EU funds for cycling route development.

For more information please contact the Project Manager, Marcela Effenbergerová, Tel: + 420 519 444 571.

“Looking at the EuroVelo map, Iceland is nearly invisible, as if the whole island was covered with ice and snow! One of the main aims of the EuroVelo project however, is to link all European countries with at least one route.  In order to help to fulfil this EuroVelo mission, I accepted an invitation from the Iceland Cyclists Federation (Landssamtök hjólreidamanna) and Ministry of Environment to participate in a conference in Reykjavik in February 2012.

The title of the conference was “Opportunities in Bicycle Tourism in Iceland” and it was extremely well-attended: there were about 100 people there in person as well as around 30 people taking advantage of a live broadcast via the internet.  Everybody was very keen to kick-start cycle tourism in Iceland and agreed upon the idea to use EuroVelo as one of the main tools to get it going.

Iceland only has one permanent ferry connection, from Seydisfjördur at the eastern end of the island to Hanstholm in Denmark, and it was suggested that using this link, a route on Iceland could potentially form part of either EuroVelo 12 – North Sea Cycle Route or EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route.

The Iceland Forestry Association contributed with a plan for 50 km of green cycle paths east and south of Reykjavik.  The Minister for the Environment, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, also participated in the discussions and she was optimistic about the future development of cycle routes in Iceland and happy to receive the collection of EuroVelo manuals that I presented her with.

The day after the conference, I had the opportunity to cycle in and around Reykjavik with some of the people from the Iceland Cyclists Federation.  Whilst it was pleasing to see that many cycle paths are already in place, several pieces are also missing.  A few route signs had been installed recently on a new path – clearly inspired from examples in Denmark – and information boards had also been added in some areas.

We cycled partly on ice and snow using studded tires but finished the day swimming in the 37 – 39 degree waters of the Blue Lagoon!”

Jens Erik Larsen Foreningen Frie Fugle, Denmark & Member of EuroVelo Council.

There is a formal rocess for adding new routes to the EuroVelo network or making significant changes to existing routes.  For further information please view here.

The authors of the ground-breaking 2009 study The European Cycle Route Network, EuroVelo: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Tourism have been commissioned by the European Parliament to update their work.

When originally published, it caught the interest of the cycling community and the wider world, as it estimated that there were 2,795 billion cycle tourism trips in Europe with a value in excess of €54 billion per annum.  It went on to estimate that, if completed, the EuroVelo network itself could account for 45.2 million cycle tourism trips, generating a total of almost €5 billion of direct revenue.

According to Prof. Richard Weston, (one of the authors of both the original study and this year’s update), the new study will “reflect on changes to the EuroVelo network, especially the Iron Curtain Trail (EV13), and the wider impacts of the Lisbon Treaty”.

A Change in Tone

Cycling Tourism had long been considered a niche market, but the original study blew away this myth. It changed the way that cycling tourism is marketed with emphasis now given to its economic benefits, in addition to the usual health, environmental and social arguments.

Before it was commissioned, the EuroVelo project was just beginning to garner the support that it now enjoys. Yes, people always assumed that cycling tourism had many benefits. Yes, people believed that it was good for both the communities along the routes, as well as the cyclists themselves. But sadly, we had no evidence to show it – there were no detailed studies to back these observations up, especially not on an international level.

Since the completion of the original study, DG ENTR (the part of the European Commission that deals with Enterprise and Tourism) has co-financed several projects supporting the central coordination of EuroVelo, as well as a number specific route development projects.  This has enabled a significant improvement in the organisation of EuroVelo.  In addition, the Iron Curtain Trail has joined the EuroVelo network (as EuroVelo 13) and pressure continues to grow for EuroVelo to be included in the TEN-T network – just last December the European Parliament asked again for its inclusion in their response to the Transport White Paper.

Progress with the other tasks on the original study’s ‘To Do List’ has been a little slower – a monitoring framework for cycling tourism has yet to be developed, the model that had been developed to assess the impact of cycling tourism has not been maintained and a appraisal of the carriage of bicycles on public transport has not been undertaken – which is all the more reason to celebrate the study being revisited.

Let’s hope that the updated version proves to be just as influential as the original.

This year the tour is dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the Netherlands – Turkey Friendship Foundation (NTFF), so if anyone from the Netherlands fancies joining the tour they will be particularly well received!

In 2011, there were 144 cyclists including ECF Vice President and EuroVelo Council Member, Frans van Schoot.  Some of you may recall that Frans wrote an article on his experiences in Turkey for the EuroVelo Newsletter: “It was for me, a great experience to climb from sea level up to 500- 600 meters in these surroundings, full with friendly people.”

For more information on the tour view the official website or contact Feridun Ekmekci on: +90 252 2141 555 / envercevko@hotmail.com

The application form is available in English and Turkish here.

EnverCevko’s official website is available here.