EU transport ministers finally met on Thursday 8 October – after a first abortive attempt on Monday 28 September (see EUROPE 12569/3) – to discuss the German proposal to draw up a European emergency plan for freight transport in the event of a pandemic.
The aim of this proposal, detailed previously in our columns (see EUROPE 12568/2), is to prevent a crisis situation from interrupting the transport flows of essential goods again. In other words, to ensure that the difficulties encountered during the Covid-19 pandemic last spring (see EUROPE 12452/14) are not repeated.
Its initiative has received unanimous support from the Ministers as well as from the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean. The draft emergency plan presented by Berlin was, however, the subject of various comments.
Passenger transport. The conclusions prepared by the Presidency on this subject will therefore be reworked by the Presidency on the basis of the meeting held on Thursday, Andreas Scheuer assured.
In particular, many ministers considered it important to extend this contingency plan – originally designed for freight only – to passenger transport, so that it is not further disrupted.
This point was raised in particular by Georges Gilkinet, the new Belgian Minister for Mobility, who insisted in particular on the need to restore travellers’ confidence in modes of transport such as bus and train.
Supporting workers. The issue of the protection of workers in the sector has also been addressed on several occasions.
“Their protection is fundamental, and they must be able to cross border at any time of crisis”, stated the representative of the Slovak Ministry of Transport. Similarly, the Finnish Minister of Transport, Timo Harakka, has called for harmonisation of the documents required of workers in the sector at border crossings in times of crisis.
Tomas Eneroth, Swedish Minister for Infrastructure, for his part, highlighted the difficulties that hundreds of thousands of seafarers still face in moving around and ensuring crew changes (see EUROPE 12465/7).
Finally, the Austrian Secretary of State, Magnus Brunner, pleaded “social standards” be maintained, and the Belgian minister sought “an important place to [be given to the] human dimension of transport and ecology”.
Rail priority. Several speakers in turn addressed the environmental issue and called for the European Green Deal’s climate objectives to be “at the heart” of this emergency plan.
Some, including the Belgian, Luxembourg, Portuguese and Estonian ministers, in fact insisted on the need to focus on the development of the railways and to invest in this “much more sustainable” sector.
Mobility package. For their part, the Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Romanian ministers called on the Commission to suspend, within the framework of this plan, some of the measures in the ‘mobility I’ package adopted last summer (see EUROPE 12524/19).
“To ensure efficiency and reduce infections, we propose that the ban on rest periods in vehicles be temporarily suspended, that the rules of cabotage be relaxed and that the return home of vehicles and drivers be suspended”, requested the representative of the Romanian Ministry of Transport.
These measures have long been criticised by critics of the ‘mobility I’ package (see EUROPE 12518/7).
Finally, the Commissioner indicated in her final speech that she had taken good note of the willingness of many States to obtain a more flexible framework for state aid in times of crisis and to minimise the administrative burden on the sector, for example by avoiding the creation of new coordination structures.
Mr Scheuer, for his part, stressed that this plan, which was initially envisaged in anticipation of future crises, would probably prove necessary now. “The next few months will continue to be a great challenge, we must avoid any surprises”, he added. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)