While it was unveiling its proposal for a 'climate law' on Wednesday 4 March (see other news), the European Commission proposed that 2021 should be the European Year of the Railways.
The Commission believes that this initiative will help achieve the transport objectives in the Green Deal and will help create a single European railway area. The Commission also notes that 2021 will be the first full year in which the rules agreed in the Fourth Railway Package (see EUROPE 11512/7) will be implemented throughout the EU.
Adina-Ioana Vălean, the European Commissioner for Transport, believes that, in addition to the “numerous benefits” it offers in terms of durability, safety and speed, rail also has the potential to bring people together.
“Setting up a coherent and functional network across all Europe is an exercise in political cohesion”, she said in a statement, adding that the EU “needs this kind of collective undertaking”.
While the Community of European Railways (CER) welcomed the initiative, Karima Delli (Greens-EFA, France), the chair of the European Parliament ‘transport’ committee, said that she could not “be satisfied with an empty announcement”. She called in particular for “an ambitious position on passenger rights” to be adopted and for freight trains and night trains to be re-introduced.
The proposal now needs to be adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)