Brussels, 19/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 March 2015, the European Parliament transport committee held its first meeting on its mid-term review of the 2011 Transport White Paper.
This work will produce a resolution expressing the European Parliament opinion on the targets set out in this white paper. These include a reduction in carbon emissions from cars (by 50% by 2030) and the transfer of road transport to the railways and inland waterways (50% by 2050).
Rapporteur Wim van de Camp (EPP, Netherlands) presented an initial work document in which he highlights the economic importance of the transport sector, which he says accounts for 10 million jobs and 5% of the EU's GDP. It will also focus on the decarbonisation and inter-modality targets, as well as the Trans-European Transport Network. It will also cover social questions.
During the debate, Claudia Tapardel (Romania), the S&D shadow rapporteur highlighted the importance of infrastructure funding and the fact that their construction had “a multiplier effect of almost 4 to 1”. She also said that investing in infrastructure helped to “create more jobs”. She also examined the question of infrastructure funding and said that it should not just be users who have to pay for it. She also highlighted the issue of environmental protection and described the decarbonisation issue as a “priority”.
The ECR, on the other hand, was very critical of this last point and stressed that the car sector employed a lot of people and that the targets in the White Paper could put their jobs at risk. It also called for specific attention to be paid to infrastructure, particularly in Eastern Europe where “there has not been any investment for many years”.
Gesine Meissner (ALDE, Germany) pointed out that “the volume of transport will increase” and also used this occasion to mention the subject of the super lorries, which are allowed in the Scandinavian countries but banned in many other European states. She said that she was sceptical about the feasibility of the modal transport targets and preferred to highlight “co-modality” in the transport arena.
Merja Kyllönen (GUE, Finland) demanded “a more ambitious approach” to transport policy as a whole by taking into account all the different digitalisation aspects. She referred to carpooling developments and stated “we can no longer consider the private car as the model most frequently used, we need to change the paradigm”. She also called on the Commission to examine these “new opportunities”, if they were to avoid “losing out to our main competitors”
Bas Eickhout (Greens, Netherlands) went onto the offensive with regard to the decarbonisation and modal transfer objectives. (Jean Comte)