Transport ministers from the EU Member States are scheduled to discuss the impact of different types of transport on the environment as well as possible solutions to reduce it at a meeting of the Council of the European Union in Brussels on Friday 20 September.
This discussion will follow up on the European Commission's communication entitled “A Clean Planet for all” of November 2018, which contemplates several problematic issues (see EUROPE 12148/1) and the conclusions of the European Council last June with regard to the environment (see EUROPE 12279/2).
EU Transport Ministers, for their part, had already discussed environmental issues at their informal meetings in Graz in October 2018 (see EUROPE 12128/1) and in Bucharest last March (see EUROPE 12223/6).
In a note published prior to this meeting, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU suggests avenues for reflection, focusing on each mode of transport, namely land transport, air transport and maritime and inland waterway transport.
It is recalled in this document that transport accounts for a quarter of CO2 emissions in the EU and is, above all, the only sector for which these emissions have increased in recent years.
Thus, to achieve the Union’s environmental objectives, it is necessary to reduce CO2 emissions in transport. This must include an increase in multimodality, a continuation of the policy concerning the development of the Trans-European Transport Network, the use of new technologies and the financing of sustainable modes of transport via the Connecting Europe Facility.
The note from the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council refers to several pieces of legislation under negotiation or finalised, such as the revision of the Directive on road infrastructure user charges (see EUROPE 12326/13), the promotion of clean vehicles in public procurement (see EUROPE 12192/24) or the rules on emissions for light and heavy-duty vehicles (see EUROPE 12162/1, 12197/2).
Options are also available, such as aviation taxation (see EUROPE 12328/9) or more ambitious EU action such as the international regulations for maritime and inland waterway transport.
The aim will therefore be for the various national delegations to try to make progress in this area. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)