Brussels, 14/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - Belgian Federal Mobility and Transport Minister Etienne Schouppe, setting out the transport priorities for the next six months, said on Tuesday 13 July that the Belgian Presidency of the EU wanted to look again at the most contentious issues of European transport policy. Belgium intends to restart talks on the Eurovignette (review of the directive on taxes, tolls and charges for heavy goods vehicles) and the internalisation of the external costs of transport “with regard to a multimodal transport system”. The Presidency hopes to that final agreement will be reached at the Transport Council on 2 December on the White Paper on the future of transport which the European Commission is due to publish in the autumn. Discussion on the review of the first rail package “will be inescapable”, Schouppe said, too, though he suggested that it was unlikely that work on this package would be finalised under Belgian presidency. He said that the Presidency would have six priorities which would be “topical, realistic and achievable” and related to the “follow-up to current issues and the Commission work programme”.
White Paper on the future of transport. A first exchange of views is due to take place at the Council meeting in Luxembourg on 15 October, the aim being to adopt the text in December, Schouppe said, stating that Belgium wanted to “contribute to the launch and implementation of the Paper”. He said that the White Paper would contain not only the key points for ensuring the sustainable development of transport, but also come to a decision on the internalisation of the external costs of the sector. Internalisation of the external costs of transport. Belgium intends to re-open discussion on the revised draft Eurovignette directive, which has been shelved since the end of the Czech Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 9872). A number of working groups have just been set up, Schouppe said, expressing the view that, despite all the related difficulties, the Presidency would succeed in bringing forward a draft compromise. Discussion “is possible as early as October,” he suggested. One of the options being considered by the Presidency is separating issues related to tackling pollution and noise from those related to use of infrastructure and traffic jams, Schouppe said. Thus, it would be easier to address the remaining thorny issues, such as how revenue is to be used (it was proposed in the initial text that revenue generated by Eurovignette should be used for the transport sector), he suggested. Internalisation of costs could be tackled as part of the review of the first rail package, which the Commission is due to present in the autumn (see related article). Trans-European Transport Network. Belgium will seek to “develop the policy and methodology” that will put in place a central network of Europe's most important communications links. When asked by MEPs, Schouppe said that a solution would have to be found to the problem of how to fund the network and thought given to the “technical specificities of the various sectors”, especially rail, and to the role that each member states gives this sector. He stated, too, that development of infrastructure would not be at the expense of transport safety. Road safety. This is one of the areas where the Belgian Presidency is looking to leave its mark. It will try to finalise work on the 4th multiannual road safety action plan, which the Commission is expected to adopt early in the autumn. Agreement is likely to be reached at the Transport Council of 2 December on the quantitative objectives included in the plan. Schouppe also highlighted the need to finalise work on the draft regulation on cross-border pursuit of driving offences. On 13-14 October, the Presidency will hold the third in the series of European road safety days. Short distance maritime transport. This form of transport, and also river transport, should be included in the logistics chain. The issue will be the main item for discussion at the informal meeting of transport ministers in Antwerp on 15-16 September. The Presidency will focus, too, on implementing the Naiades programme, which will be the theme of a conference on freight transport in cities, in Brussels on 16-17 November. Belgium would also like to achieve the extension of the area of responsibility of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), provided for in the third maritime package. Civil aviation. Over the course of the next six months, the Presidency will monitor implementation of the single European sky. In Bruges on 26-27 October, the European aviation summit is expected to discuss the issue of civil aviation safety and security and also the single sky. Galileo. The Presidency expects to be able, during its term of office, to finalise work on EGNOS and Galileo, the European satellite navigation programmes. “We hope that the mid-term review of these programmes, announced by Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani, will result in a risk analysis and provide for the multiannual funding. By 2013, Galileo should be complete,” Schouppe said. (A.By./transl.rt)