Brussels, 17/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Siim Kallas has promised a package on urban mobility. This announcement is an extremely timely one, coming on the second day of mobility week (see other article), accompanied by the launch of a public consultation on the issue.
The European Transport Commissioner announced his intentions on Monday 17 September at a conference dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Civitas initiative, a programme of the European Commission which helps more than 200 cities to establish policies to promote sustainable Urban mobility. Commissioner Kallas is working on the theory that “the European citizens are fed up with the daily frustration of not getting to work on time and the problems and costs of traffic congestion”. He intends to reverse the trend “through forward planning, new technologies and supporting policies”. His “urban mobility” package will therefore come within the field of the White Paper on transport, published in 2011, and which aims to remove cars powered by fossil fuels from cities by 2050. A number of initiatives announced in this package can therefore be expected to feature, as the package will present “a pan-European level framework for developing and implementing the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans which were announced in the White Paper”, the Commissioner explains. The reference document raised the idea of encouraging large companies to adopt management plans for the mobility of their employees, to create a link between granting structural funds and the cities' performance in terms of mobility, and establishing a binding approach for cities of a certain size. The package is expected to list the areas in which “EU-level action can complement actions at local level”, the Commission also announced. However, the Commissioner will base his proposals on the responses received to a public consultation. This is available from Monday 17 September, and will be accessible for one month. (MD/transl.fl)