Henrik Hololei, the Director-General of the European Commission’s Mobility and Transport Directorate General (DG MOVE) was invited to debate with members of the European Parliament transport committee on Thursday 6 September. Mr Hololei highlighted the need for MEPs to reach a swift compromise on the social and market aspects of the first mobility package. He still hopes that the inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) will be concluded before the end of the current mandate.
Mr Hololei stated that “not concluding these dossiers would be a failure” and added, “the status quo is not an option” with regard to the social and market aspects of the first mobility package.
It should be recalled that more than a year after the Commission's presentation of a first package of proposals on the modernisation of the transport sector (see EUROPE 11799), negotiations at the Council of the European Union and European Parliament are dragging on (see EUROPE 12078). Two major forces are pitted against each other: those supporting harmonisation of the social and market rules, the majority of which are in Western Europe, against those that support liberalisation of these rules, a majority of which are in central, eastern and peripheral Europe.
Even though obtaining a compromise and finalising the dossiers by the end of the mandate now appears rather difficult to achieve, Violeta Bulc, the Commissioner for Transport recently reasserted her commitment to doing this (see EUROPE 12087). Mr Hololei appealed for the different parties involved in the work to “keep open minds” in an effort to reach solutions that are acceptable to all. He added “the Commission will be there to play the role of facilitator…DG Move is available to you 24-7”.
The Director-General of the Commission’s DG Move also highlighted the necessity of moving forward and/or completing certain key dossiers, particularly those on combined transport (see EUROPE 12079), the Connecting Europe Mechanism (see EUROPE 12085) and railway passengers' rights and responsibilities (see EUROPE 12083). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)