Brussels, 20/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The TRAN committee has given a warm welcome to the legislative proposal from Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas: the European strategy for alternative fuels is not expected to create too many problems at the European Parliament, even though MEPs are concerned about its funding and support for it from the public at large.
Making good the shortcomings. On Tuesday 19 February, Kallas, presented the raft of legislative measures on alternative fuels to members of the Parliamentary committee on transport. The initiative was given quite a warm welcome. It aims to develop recharging infrastructure in Europe for alternative fuels (including electricity and gas) and their standardisation because, according to the Commissioner, current recharging shortcomings are discouraging investors, manufacturers, consumers and users.
Positive welcome. The Socialists said that although a number of adaptations needed to be made, the proposals go in the right direction, according to Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium). He also said that we finally have a strategy on paper for underpinning the transition to a more sustainable transport stock in Europe. It is good that Europe is taking the first step. The spokesman for the Christian Democrats, Mathieu Grosch (EPP, Belgium) also said it went in the right direction and appreciated the palette of solutions on offer. Nevertheless, he did add that supply and infrastructure should correspond to this multiplicity and that production should be anchored in Europe. In his eyes, information to consumers is crucial, similarly to funding for these alternative resources.
Funding. These two points were also underlined by the Liberal Democrat MEP, Gésine Meissner (ALDE, Germany). On the subject of funding, she focused on what the Commissioner had said about promoting private investors. According to Meissner, this will obviously be the main challenge, how to attract these investors. Dominique Riquet MEP (EPP, France) deplored the fact that the private sector is not funding infrastructure that is not on the market and the market is not funding vehicles that cannot be charged. We know that we need to make public funding available to start or it will disappear with the Council's proposal (the cut in the Connecting Europe Facility as part of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020: Ed). Inés Ayala Sender MEP (S&D, Spain) got right to the heart of the matter and declared that the major energy companies should also co-fund infrastructure.
Solar, maintenance and safety. Speaking on behalf of the Greens, Michael Kramer from Germany opened the debate on other issues as well. He suggested taking solar infrastructure into account as well, in addition to the whole life cycle of electric cars, because it is more polluting than traditional vehicles. Ayala Sender also raised the question of maintenance and safety for vehicles powered by alternative fuels and asked what the Commission was planning in this respect. In reply to all these comments, the Commissioner explained that all questions would be followed closely and analysed.
The TRAN committee is therefore in favour of the Commission proposal on alternative fuels. As El Khadaroui explained, as opposed to the railway package, it will be easier to find ways of making good progress. (MD/trans/fl)