Chapter I, Article 2 · Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/562

Contents

Article 2Definitions#

For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:

(a)‘sustainable land transport sectors’ means the railway sector, the inland waterways sector and sustainable multimodal transport in the land transport sector;

(aa)‘equity investment’ means the provision of capital to an undertaking, invested directly or indirectly in return for the ownership of a corresponding share of that undertaking;

(b)‘external costs of transport’ means costs generated by transport users and not borne by them but by society as a whole, notably costs related to greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, injuries and fatalities, noise and congestion;

(bb)‘quasi-equity investment’ means a type of financing that ranks between equity and debt, having a higher risk than senior debt and a lower risk than common equity and whose return for the holder is predominantly based on the profits or losses of the underlying target undertaking and which are unsecured in the event of default. Quasi-equity investments can be structured as debt, unsecured and subordinated, including mezzanine debt, and in some cases convertible into equity, or as preferred equity;

(c)‘aid scheme’ means any act on the basis of which, without further implementing measures being required, individual aid awards may be made to undertakings defined within the act in a general and abstract manner, and any act on the basis of which aid which is not linked to a specific project may be granted to one or several undertakings for an indefinite period of time and/or for an indefinite amount;

(cc)‘start of works’ means the earlier of either the start of construction works relating to the investment or the first legally binding commitment to order equipment or, in the case of takeovers, the moment of acquiring the assets directly linked to the acquired establishment;

(d)‘new commercial rail freight connection’ means a commercial connection that concerns new scheduled rail freight operations between at least two freight terminals that have not been directly connected by scheduled rail freight services for at least three years prior to the start of operations on the given connection;

(dd)‘fiscal successor scheme’ means a scheme in the form of tax advantages which constitutes an amended version of a previously existing scheme in the form of tax advantages and which replaces it;

(e)‘new commercial inland waterways freight connection’ means a commercial connection that concerns new scheduled inland waterways freight operations between at least two freight terminals that have not been directly connected by scheduled inland waterways freight services for at least three years prior to the start of operations on the given connection;

(ee)‘aid intensity’ means the gross aid amount expressed as a percentage of the eligible costs, before any deduction of tax or other charges;

(f)‘freight terminal’ means a structure equipped for transhipment and temporary storage of freight;

(ff)‘transport operator’ means an undertaking carrying passengers or freight in the sustainable land transport sectors;

(g)‘railway service facility’ means a service facility (for example, rail freight terminals, or a maintenance or storage facility) and its access infrastructure (including the physical or digital equipment necessary for its functioning), located within the Union and referred to in Annex II to Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council^note, with the exception of facilities or equipment related to the pursuit of non-transport activities;

(gg)‘transport organiser’ means an undertaking organising the transport of freight and thus making the choice between modes of transport;

(h)‘access infrastructure’ means any type of infrastructure necessary to ensure access and entry from land or sea and river by users to a rail or inland waterways multimodal transport facility or unimodal railway service facility or inland waterways facility, such as roads, rail tracks, channels and locks;

(hh)‘sustainable land transport’ means the carriage of freight or passengers by rail, inland waterways or sustainable multimodal transport;

(i)‘inland waterways facility’ means a service facility (for example, a freight terminal, or a maintenance or storage facility) and its access infrastructure (including the physical or digital equipment necessary for its functioning), located within the Union and used to carry out inland waterways transport, with the exception of facilities or equipment that are related to the pursuit of non-transport activities;

(ii)‘land transport’ means the carriage of freight or passengers by rail, inland waterways and road transport;

(j)‘port superstructure’ means surface arrangements (such as for storage), fixed equipment (such as warehouses and terminal buildings) and mobile equipment (such as cranes) located in a port to provide of transport-related port services, as long as the superstructure in question is located in a multimodal transport facility with a rail or inland waterways connection;

(jj)‘short-sea shipping’ means the movement of cargo and/or passengers by sea between ports situated in geographical waters of one or several Member States or between a port situated in waters of Member States and a port situated in waters of an adjacent third country having a coastline on the seas bordering waters of one or several Member States^note;

(k)‘rail or inland waterways multimodal transport facility’ means a service facility, including port superstructure and rail or inland waterways freight terminals, and its access infrastructure (including the physical or digital equipment necessary for its functioning), located within the Union and needed to provide rail or inland waterways transport in combination with other modes of transport, with the exception of facilities or equipment related to the pursuit of non-transport activities;

(kk)‘sustainable multimodal transport’ means carriage of freight or passengers by at least two different modes of transport where at least one of the used transport modes is rail or inland waterways, or where multimodal transport combines land transport with short-sea shipping;

(l)‘multimodal transport’ means the carriage of freight or passengers by at least two different modes of transport;

(ll)‘non-transport activities’ means commercial services not related to sustainable land transport, including ancillary services to passengers, freight forwarders or other service providers, such as the renting out of offices, shops and hotels;

(m)‘ad hoc aid’ means aid not granted on the basis of an aid scheme;

(mm)‘TEN-T’ means the network as referred to in Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1679;

(n)‘private siding’ means a privately owned and operated piece of rail infrastructure, including rail tracks and any other installations or equipment necessary to make it functional, connecting to the public rail network loading facilities that do not qualify as service facilities under Annex II to Directive 2012/34/EU, as well as any dedicated infrastructure serving a privately owned and operated piece of rail infrastructure;

(nn)‘railway undertaking’ means a railway undertaking as defined in Article 3(1) of Directive 2012/34/EU;

(o)‘dedicated infrastructure’ means infrastructure that is built for ex ante identifiable undertaking(s) and tailored to their needs;

(oo)‘new entrant’ means a railway undertaking as defined in Article 3(1) of Directive 2012/34/EU that fulfils both of the following conditions:

(i)it received a licence pursuant to Article 17(3) of Directive 2012/34/EU for the relevant market segment less than 20 years before the aid is granted;

(ii)it is not linked, within the meaning of Article 3(3) of Annex I to this Regulation, to a railway undertaking that received a licence pursuant to Article 3(14) of Directive 2012/34/EU prior to 1 January 2010;

(p)‘vehicle for rail or inland waterways transport’ means:

(i)rolling stock; or

(ii)an inland waterways vessel;

(pp)‘small and medium-sized enterprise’ or ‘SME’ means an undertaking that fulfils the conditions laid down in Annex I to this Regulation;

(q)‘rolling stock’ means any of the following:

(i)locomotives for freight and passenger transport, and passenger rolling stock, including thermal or electric traction units, self-propelling thermal or electric passenger trains, and passenger coaches;

(ii)freight wagons, including low-deck vehicles designed for the entire network and vehicles designed to carry lorries;

(qq)‘European river information services (“RIS”) Environment’ means an electronic single-point-of-access platform based on national river information that provides technical and operational services for RIS users and contains links to electronic reporting according to the ‘once-only’ principle, ensuring that citizens and businesses provide data to public administrations only once;

(r)‘inland waterways vessel’ means a vessel for passenger or freight transport intended solely or mainly for navigation on inland waterways or in waters within or closely adjacent to sheltered waters, including vessels specially built to propel a pushed convoy;

(rr)‘telematics applications for freight services’means applications such as information systems (real-time monitoring of freight and trains), marshalling and allocation systems, reservation, payment and invoicing systems, and applications that manage connections with other modes of transport and that produce electronic accompanying documents;

(s)‘small mid-cap’ or ‘SMC’ means an undertaking fulfilling the criteria laid down in Annex IV to this Regulation. For the purpose of aid involved in financial products supported by the InvestEU Fund under the Union’s Multiannual Financial Framework for the years 2021 to 2027^note, ‘small mid-cap’ or ‘SMC’ means an undertaking that is not an SME and employs up to 499 employees;

(ss)‘European vehicle register’ means a register pursuant to Articles 22(1) and 47(5) of Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note.

(t)‘Intermodal Loading Unit’ means a container, swap body or semi-trailer/freight road motor vehicle or vehicle combination used for intermodal transport;

(u)‘intermodal transport’ means the movement of freight in one and the same intermodal loading unit by successive modes of transport without the handling of the freight itself when changing modes;

(v)‘sea-going vessel’ means a vessel other than those which navigate solely or mainly in inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters;

(w)‘undertaking in difficulty’ means an undertaking in difficulty as defined in Article 2, point (18), of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014;

(x)‘equipment for sustainable multimodal transport’ means equipment instrumental to sustainable multimodal transport, such as cranable semitrailers, with the exception of equipment used for the facilities;

(y)‘individual aid’ means (i) ad hoc aid; and (ii) awards of aid to individual beneficiaries on the basis of an aid scheme;

(z)‘rail or inland waterways freight terminal’ means a freight terminal between two different rail systems or between at least two transport modes, one of which is rail or inland waterways, and its access infrastructure (including the physical or digital equipment necessary for its functioning), located within the Union„ such as freight terminals in inland or maritime ports, along inland waterways or in airports or multimodal logistics platforms, with the exception of facilities or equipment related to the pursuit of non-transport activities;