EC Outlines Future European Transport Policy
June 17, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
On June 17, the European Commission (EC) adopted a communication on the future of transport in the European Union (EU).
With this new communication ("A sustainable future for transport: Towards an integrated, technology-led and user friendly system"), the EC aims to stimulate further debate among stakeholders and transport experts to identify concrete policy proposals for its next transport white paper, scheduled for 2010.
So far, the EC has identified six main trends and challenges that will shape the future of transport policy over the coming decades - aging, migration and internal mobility, environmental challenges, the availability of energy resources, urbanization and globalization.
The EC believes this demonstrates the need to focus future European transport policy on the pursuit of an integrated, technology-based and user-friendly transport system.
"Transport has been and will remain an essential component of our daily lives. It has contributed substantially to the development, integration and growth of the internal market with tangible benefits to the European economy," said EC vice president Antonio Tajani, commissioner responsible for transport.
"European transport policy has also raised standards for the sector such as improved working conditions, higher safety and security conditions as well as the strengthening of passenger rights. I believe that the time is ripe to throw this policy forward. Firstly by further integrating different transport modes, by putting the EU at the forefront transport services and technologies and thirdly shaping this future transport policy on the needs and rights of both transport users and workers."
In 2001, the EC issued a white paper setting an agenda for transport policy throughout 2010, which was updated in 2006. The June 17 communication is a follow-up to that white paper and defines a vision for the future of transport and mobility until 2020, taking into account scenarios that may possibly arise decades beyond this date.
The EC says that transport policies for the next 10 years must be based on a wide reflection on the future of Europe's transport system. Therefore, the EC commissioned external studies on the evaluation of past policies and future scenarios and consulted with experts and stakeholders through specialized focus groups and through a high-level stakeholders conference that took place on March 9-10, 2009.
The main conclusions of the June 17 communication are:
- European transport policy has helped to provide an efficient mobility system to EU people and businesses. It now has the task of ensuring that this mobility can be sustained in the future.
- Environmental sustainability, ageing, migration, fossil fuel scarcity, urbanization, and globalization are key tendencies in our society and will pose challenges to our system of mobility.
- Accelerating the introduction of innovative technologies and the full integration of the different transport modes is crucial to meeting those challenges. This is in a context in which transport users and employees, with their needs and rights, are always kept at the center of policy-making.
- It is important to advance the external projection of European transport policy as a way to ensure further integration with neighboring countries and the promotion of Europe's economic and environmental interests in the global context.
The new communication does not include a detailed program of policy measures, but rather tries to identify a strategic vision for the future of transport. The vision and ideas it puts forward are meant to stimulate further debate aimed at identifying possible policy options. Next year, this work is expected to give rise to a formulation of concrete policy proposals and to the subsequent adoption of a white paper.
The EC encourages all interested party to contribute to this exercise by submitting their views on the future of European transport and on possible policy options to the mailbox tren-future-of-transport@ec.europa.eu by Sept. 30, 2009.
Source: European Commission (EC).