Publications Archive

With its Communication the Commission is preparing the ground for a White Paper to be submitted next year on transport policy from 2010 to 2020. Since structural changes in transport policy require long-term implementation periods, the Commission is already planning for the period up till 2060.

The European Commission is not satisfied with the development of the transeuropean transport system. In its Green Paper the Commission presents its visison of a future TEN-T policy and three options for action. Obviously it aims at the establishment of a "priority network" instead of a "core network" in future. In this context the Commission wants the transnational projects to be chosen by rational and comprehensible criteria.

The European Commission identifies in a report the developments and problems of road haulage in general and the cabotage rules in particular. Cabotage refers to domestic commercial haulage operations carried out by a haulier established in another Member State. Cabotage is only allowed in the EU as an exception. According to the European Commission the cabotage provisions raise problems because they limit hauliers in increasing their efficiency, they restrict the markets accessible to hauliers and they cause empty runs. Therefore the Commission calls for relaxing the cabotage provisions.

Road traffic generates costs that can be split into those directly borne by road users and those imposed on others and the public (so-called external costs, e.g. air pollution, noise pollution, loss of time due to congestion). According to a Commission’s Proposal Member States are to be authorised to include the external costs of road freight transport into road tolls levied on HGV (so-called internalisation). The European Parliament and the Council have not yet reached any agreement on said Proposal. To this end, the Council asked the Commission to have an analysis drawn up exploring the impacts of a possible internalisation.

The Commission presents a strategy for encouraging the development and uptake of green road vehicles. In particular, it wishes to promote “clean and energy efficient” vehicles based on conventional combustion engines and “ultra-low-carbon vehicles“ through the deployment of new technologies such as alternative fuels, electric motors and fuel cells.

In 2010, the Commission will publish a White Paper on the European transport policy for the period of 2010-2020. The present Draft Report of the transport committee presents the European Parliament’s prospective of the challenges and key issues of a future European transport policy. Moreover, it defines concrete “measurable” targets for the transport sector to be accomplished by 2020. For instance, CO₂ emissions from the road transport are to be reduced by 20% compared to those in 2010. Finally, the Report takes opposition to an inter-modal competition and instead chooses “effective comodality” as the preferred policy approach in the matter.

The European Commission wants to set up a "Blue Belt" in the seas around Europe. It will strengthen the Single European Transport Area for Shipping by allowing vessels to operate freely inside the EU internal market with a "minimum" of red tape. For this purpose, the existing regular shipping service scheme is to be shortened and simplified and an EU-wide standard electronic cargo manifest ("eManifest") introduced detailing the status of the goods being carried - e.g. origin.

The new „dual layer structure consist of: the comprehensive network (1st level) which is to be maintained. It serves as a basis for the construction of a coherent “core network” (2nd level). The latter is to be made up of links of “the highest strategic and economic importance” and of a “genuine European planning perspective”. The ideas presented for discussion by the Commission concern the future planning of TEN-T, its implementation and its institutional and legal framework.

In order to speed up the arrival of emergency services, in the event of an accident, by 40-50%, the European Commission wants to introduce an EU-wide, standard emergency system for road traffic ("eCall"). An eCall device inside the vehicle will allow an emergency call to be sent, either automatically in the case of a "severe accident" or manually by the occupants of the vehicle, via the mobile telephone network to an emergency response centre. The aim is to reduce the number of fatalities and severe injuries caused by road accidents.

According to the Commission’s proposals “PNR data” of passengers travelling from or to third countries are to be collected by air carriers during the passengers’ flight booking procedure and must be transferred to Member States’ authorities. The Directive regulates data processing (collection, retention and analysis) through national authorities, the data exchange between Member States and the data transfer to third countries.