Grunden til disse bestemmelser er, at Samhørighedsfonden skal kunne finansiere et eller flere faser af et helt projekt samtidig med EFRU, idet en sammenkædning af de disponible finansielle instrumenter bidrager til en maksimering af finansieringernes effekt og til en hurtigere etablering af de transeuropæiske transport- og energinet.
The Regulation also stipulates that no expenditure can simultaneously qualify for aid from the Cohesion and Structural Funds, the reason being that the Cohesion Fund must be able to fund one or more stages of an overall project alongside the ERDF, since combining the available financial instruments helps to maximise their funding impact and speeds up the completion of trans-European transport and energy networks in particular.