Brussels, 18/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - MEPs from the European Parliament's transport and tourism committee have received information about clean fuels for transport, which should help them to develop an approach for negotiating procedures on the related package.
They received comments from the different transport sectors, car manufacturers, electric transport supporters, local authorities and the European Investment Bank.
The rapporteur, Carlos Fidanza (EPP, Italy) expressed concerns about funding the infrastructure network proposed by the European Commission (the objectives listed by member states for charging stations for different fuels by 2020) and the degree of public intervention in this connection. He also had concerns about the planned distances between charging stations. Many MEPs again raised the question of what kind of electrical charging apparatus should be adopted (the Commission arbitrarily chose type 2 from Germany) and the urban planning involved for this charging station network. Philippe De Backer MEP (ALDE, Belgium) advocated technological neutrality; Jacqueline Foster (ECR, United Kingdom) demanded subsidiarity in the choice of infrastructure and argued that the timetable and the objectives suggested by the Commission were unrealistic. Mathieu Grosch (EPP, Belgium) also had questions involving the appropriateness of the Commission proposal and asked whether “we really need legislation or could the industry organise itself?” (MD/transl.fl)